1) How useful were the pre-course readings?

1: Very good background material in history and terminology of the subject. Given the amount of material covered in the class, this was very useful, if not essential, preparation. 2: Very useful. 3: Extremely useful. The readings prepared students, or rather me, very well for the class covered material. 4: Very useful. 5: Very useful, especially for vocabulary and technical information. 6: Very useful, except for Short History of the Printed Word (which I found rather difficult and obtuse). I especially liked the supplemental readings and Carter, which were very helpful. 7: I didn't like the books that well. They were a bit dreadful and tended to overexpose the history of typography. 8: Very useful, necessary to have a basic understanding of the material and be on the same footing as the rest of the class at the beginning of the week. 9: Excellent. 10: Although I did not cover everything on the list, those readings I did finish provided me with a vocabulary which came in very handy this week. 11: Very useful -- though I was able only to read Chappell and review Carter.

2) Were the course syllabus and other materials distributed in class useful (or will they be so in the future, after you return home)?

1: Yes, absolutely. 2: They were useful to some extent. They no longer track the lectures perfectly, which is slightly confusing on occasion. 3: Yes. 4: Very useful. 5: Very useful and helpful. I would suggest adding to slide list the idea/concept being illustrated; i.e., "Contemporary codex accession...(add uncial)," maybe not necessary. 6: Yes -- I will be using the syllabus, which I have annotated to assist me in questions I have in the future. 7: Yes. 8: Yes. Exit bibliography very good (and up-to-date). 9: Yes, during the class and will be afterward i.e. reading lists. 10: Absolutely. If anything, it would have been helpful to have had a list of bibliographical reference works, particularly those owned by RBS. 11: Both now and in the future I think they are/will be very useful -- very carefully done.

3) Was the intellectual level of the course content appropriate?

1: Yes -- most discussion was at very high (but accessible) level, on topic, fruitful, and valuable. 2-3: Yes. 4: Yes. I learned a great deal, both from the instructor and from my classmates. MA was wonderful about inquiring about our understanding, entertaining questions, and spelling, defining, or elucidating unfamiliar words, names, and concepts. 5: Very high level much of the time...and it worked because professor and students all engaged. 6: Absolutely -- MA is very receptive to questions at all levels of expertise and that is very helpful. 7: Absolutely, very interesting input and discussions. 8: Yes. Absolutely appropriate. 9: Yes. 10: Certainly, the level varied enough between the general and the specific to provide an introduction to areas with which I was unfamiliar and to review areas which I knew better upon arrival. 11: Absolutely -- neither condescending nor simplistic. A high conceptual level set with much factual information as well.

4) If your course had field trips, were they effective?

1: Yes, we took several trips to Special Collections, and this was invaluable. It was both a pleasure and didactically beneficial to be able to see important works up close and to analyze them. 2: Seeing the examples in Special Collections was extremely informative. 3: Yes. The Special Collections visits were crucial to seeing examples of the readings -- the different scripts or types, page layouts, illustration techniques, &c. 4: Absolutely -- daily trips to Special Collections to look at superb examples of books, which MA beautifully expounded upon. 5: Special Collections trips added much to the course to see first hand many examples. Professor did wonderful job of assembling and showing connections between and among texts, bindings, and ideas. 6: The items displayed in Special Collections were extremely well selected and really helped to solidify points made in class. 7: Yes, very helpful to see, sense, and smell the books. 8: Special Collections visits were wonderful. A hands-on (or eyes-on) application of the subject matter for that day. 9: Our class went to Special Collections 4-5 times. Always time well spent. A great benefit to see examples of what we were studying in class. 10: Absolutely! It was the highlight of every day. 11: Extremely well spent, and, in fact, one of the most valuable (perhaps the most valuable) aspects of this course. We learned many lessons in connoisseurship.

5) What did you like best about the course?

1: The instructor's enthusiasm, breadth of knowledge, and good humor made it possible to traverse several centuries and hundreds of terms from different fields willingly. Also, substantial amount of time spent on period before printing was well spent. 2: Teacher's thorough knowledge (indeed, staggering knowledge) coupled with his skill at working with adult students from varied backgrounds. 3: The material was something that I've always wanted to study. MA is also a very gifted, learned, and accessible teacher. He brought his erudition and wit to every subject that he discussed. 4: MA's knowledge, enthusiasm, sense of humor. His varied experiences, language facility, insights into cultural and social history, apt use of slides and examples of books made for a rich mix. 5: MA is extremely knowledgeable and personable. He packed so much information into one week. We somehow managed to keep up interest and energy, in part because of his enthusiasm and encouragement. 6: The "museums" in the classroom were very useful as were the visits to Special Collections and the films. I enjoyed the assignment as well, which really made me think about what we were learning. 7: To have the discussed materials at hand -- "practical learning." 8: Completely engaging, excellent mix of students, enthusiastic instructor. In-class museums (or examples) were very useful. 9: Visits to Special Collections, excellent displays in our classroom, items from the RBS collections. 10: MA's enthusiasm and extraordinary breadth of knowledge. 11: See question number four above. Also liked MA's way of working with a fairly lively, and engaged, group of diverse people.

6) How could the course have been improved?

1: Perhaps more time identifying type (especially modern faces) and bindings (and binding structures); more carefully done forays into 19th and 20th century (especially section on collecting and William Morris "Summation"). 2: For me, the time spent on books and other general information outside the time period (i.e. 19th and 20th century information) would have been better spent in further concentration on the book until 1800. Information on, for instance, William Morris was, inevitably, at the expense of other information. With my improved (by the course) but still shaky grasp of everything covered earlier, this was just overload. Trying to make connections across such a wide time line with no more than my recently acquired knowledge of pre-1800 book was beyond me. 3: The course is excellent as it currently is. I only regret that I could not take a full semester version of this course given the density of the material -- both in terms of the historical material and of the practical information regarding printing. 4: I can't think of anything. It was remarkable. 5: Make sure the slides are all listed with title, date, &c. 6: I wish we had more time -- other than that, the course was perfect. 7: I would prefer other pre-course readings, otherwise was excellent. 8: A lot of preparation and thought was put into this class, I would keep it as it is. 9: Felt there wasn't much time to experience much else on campus. Difficult to even find time to see display in Rotunda. 10: A little less time on letterforms and more on the spread of printing in Europe and perhaps the practices of reading over time; something on print ephemera would also have been interesting had time allowed. 11: By running for two weeks, other than one. This would give one more time to assimilate all the information; and also more museum/reading time.

7) We are always concerned about the physical well-being both of the RBS teaching collections and of materials owned by UVa's Special Collections. If relevant, what suggestions do you have for the improved classroom handling of such materials used in your course this week?

1: None. 2: No suggestions. 3: It may be good to have students wash their hands before handling rare materials -- i.e. manuscripts and early printed books. 4: It would have been useful to have had an assortment of book cradles on hand in our classroom. 5: Have nine book cradles in classroom. 6: We could have used book stands for some of the books we used during our assignment. 7: They were handled well. 8: Teaching collections and Special Collections were handled appropriately. 9: Require RBS students to bring archival gloves. 10: N/A. 11: ?

8) If you attended the Sunday and/or Monday night lectures, were they worth attending?

1: Sunday -- Fine. Monday -- OK. Thursday -- OK. 2: Somewhat. 3: Yes. 4: I attended Sunday, Monday, and Thursday lectures. Thursday's was the most memorable; Sunday's was less impressive, but very important to the future of RBS; Monday's was quite disappointing, as it lacked any apparent intellectual framework. 5: Sunday's lecture seemed important to understand some of the history and the future of RBS. Monday's lecture had interesting images, but seemed to lack clear argument without explaining techniques. 6: I very much enjoyed Greer Allen's lecture on Thursday and TB's lecture on Sunday. I did not, as much, enjoy the Monday night lecture. 7: I especially liked GA's lecture. 8: Lectures should always be attended because one never knows just what might be learned. GA's lecture was particularly thoughtful, entertaining, and enlightening. 9: Sunday was a nice introduction. Allen Fern's lecture was just OK -- really a general overview of the history of photography. GA's Thursday lecture was wonderful. 10: Thursday's lecture by GA was fantastic. 11: Both were worth attending, but GA's was infinitely more fun than the first.

9) If you attended Study Night, was the time profitably spent?

1: Yes; 3-D Carter is great and very useful, since Carter's text descriptions sometimes are hard to follow. Extra materials (not in Carter but in 3-D Carter) also useful and interesting. 2: Yes. 3: Yes. My only complaint is that neither the Alderman Library nor the RBS office (where the book collections were) were open as late as I needed. 4: Yes! 5: I did attend Study Night; and found it helpful. 6: Yes -- I benefitted greatly from 3-D Carter. A wonderful idea. 7: Yes. 8: I did attend Study Night, it is profitable in the sense that one can sit around with fellow students or colleagues and just look at items in a casual way. 11: Yes.

10) Did you get your money's worth? Any final thoughts?

1: Yes. 2: Yes. I would urge others to take this course. Doing the advance reading is strongly recommended. 3: Yes, I definitely got my money's worth. Advice: make sure that you do all of the pre-assigned reading before you get to RBS. Also, if you know something about medieval manuscripts and paleography, that will help in obtaining a better understanding of the history of the scripts and how early printing mimics medieval manuscripts in its use of type and layout. 4: Absolutely. Come rested, don't make any social plans because every second will be filled with videos, lectures, preparation for the assignment, &c. Please consider offering a course in 19th, 20th, 21st century art books. We have a small collection in my institution and I would like to know more to inform my instruction, exhibits, and potential collecting influence. (Others generally do our collecting.) It is important to promote these works and educate students and public as to their importance. Thanks! 5: Yes! I would hope to return another year for another course. Do the reading in advance. 6: My advice is to take it. Absolutely worth the time and money -- a wonderful course that I hope to build on. 7: MA did a wonderful job, I really learned a lot. 8: Yes. Fourth year here, always get my money's worth, highest level of teaching with assortment of interesting fellow students. 9: Definitely received money's worth. Days were packed, many resources from RBS and UVa Special Collections and general library were well used. 10: Undoubtedly, I only wish that we'd had more time to go further in-depth on certain subjects. That said, I don't believe you could find a better instructor for this course than MA. He personally made this course such a success. 11: No question about this. RBS offers a new opportunity to explore subjects difficult to access anywhere else, in an atmosphere informed enough to make being here a genuine pleasure.

Number of respondents: 11

There were two archivists or manuscript librarians (18%), two general librarians with some rare book duties (18%), three full-time student (28%), one teacher or professor (9%), one editor and publisher (9%), one manager with responsibilities for book and Web design and editing (9%), and one individual who works at a publishing house (9%).

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