1) How useful were the pre-course readings?

1: Gascoigne essential to get maximum benefit from the course. 2: Especially good, well written -- naturally one would like better (i.e., "real") images -- but Gascoigne helped a lot. 3: Pre-course readings were very helpful. Without them I would have been unable to get much out of the class. 4: Fine. 5: Extremely useful. Gascoigne is dense and hard to read, but it is excellent preparation. 6: Good, but hard to read in entirety. 7: The book was extremely useful to have read before class. 8: Very. 9: The major pre-course reading was more useful while taking the course rather than reading prior to the course. 10: Very useful.

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! Will transcribe elements along with my notes. 2: I will keep and refer to the materials in the future, excellent bibliography. 3: It should be useful to go back to it and compare it to the readings. 4: Yes, they will be used as reference. 5: Extremely useful. 6: Yes. 7: The syllabus was very useful and will be especially helpful when going over my notes after the class is over. 8: Extremely useful. 9: Yes. 10: Of course.

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

1-3: Yes. 4: The content was overwhelming -- need time to absorb the material. 5-6: Yes. 7: Yes. I was amazed at how dense the instruction was and yet how much I was able to absorb in only a week. 8: Yes. 9: Yes. 10: Very.

4) What did you like best about the course?

1: Hands-on time with the prints under guidance from the instructor. The self-test and the easy/hard test packets were also very helpful. 2: Practicality -- the "real" prints were incredibly helpful and extremely well presented. 3: The number of prints you get to see and compare with each other. 4: Relevant class examples. 5: The extensive exposure to the real world of identifying prints. 6: All the supporting materials -- the prints. Good pace and funny stories. Experience of the instructor. 7: The use of actual examples was invaluable. I would not have been able to learn nearly as much from the same class taught with slides. 8: I really enjoyed doing the print processes (using presses, &c.). 9: The labs and the vignettes (not the illustrative kind -- the stories told by the instructor). 10: The hands-on labs!!

5) How could the course have been improved?

1: After-hours availability of the examples would have been very helpful. With all the material presented, some of it does tend to run together. The extra time with the examples would have been helpful to internalize the information. 2: Hard to say...we covered a lot of material and covered it with great efficiency. 3: More time at the end to see if we could identify prints on our own, so we can see our mistakes. 4: Less intensity. 5: Hard to improve. Perhaps moving even faster with more specific examples to examine. 6: Explanation of the mechanics repeated more often. 7: I can't think of anything. 9: I wish the course had a bit more context -- the professor had contextualized the processes a bit more within the "illustrative world of the book." 10: A silk-screen session(?).

6) 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. 4: Wear cotton gloves. 5: None. 7: None. 8: More room to both have prints in front of us and have space to take notes.

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

1: I do not have a major interest in books. However, even had I, I believe I would have found the Monday night lecture far more helpful -- that is interesting and memorable -- had it been distilled to high points -- about half its length -- and accompanied by the full text in a handout. It appeared to have been well researched and full of useful information -- but, deadly in the form presented. 2: Yes to both, well worth attending. 3: Very interesting even though Monday's was as TB said NMFS (not my field, sweetie). 5: Missed them. 7: Yes. Christian Dupont's lecture was very interesting, well-presented, and appropriate to the subject of rare books. 8: Yes.

8) If you attended Museum Night, was the time profitably spent?

1: Yes. 2: Yes. 3: Yes, a good variety of everything. 5: Yes. 7: Yes, I very much enjoyed getting to see some of the collections.

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

1: Yes. Bring your Gascoigne to refer to at night. 2: Well worth the money, the course and overall experience were both great. 3: Yes. The Red Roof Inn is just as close as the Cavalier Inn and closer to the food places. 4: Yes. TB is very enthusiastic about the content and he expects the same attitude from his students. 5: Yes. I learned a tremendous amount. This is a perhaps unique opportunity to cover the entire range of print-making in a one-week course. Extremely well taught too. 6: Yes, as with past course I took, it becomes a starting point for further study and use in my job. 7: I absolutely got my money's worth. It is certainly worth the cost and very easy to see why it has to cost so much to offer such excellent level of instruction and class materials. 8: Yes. 9: Advice: unless the student is a dealer, collector, or school of book illustrations, I suggest that all students should take the "History of the Book, 200-2000" as a prerequisite (or a more apposite prerequisite) prior to taking this course. Otherwise, I greatly benefitted and absorbed much more than I had believed, as proven by the final diagnostic test! 10: Yes!!

Number of respondents: 10

There were three rare book librarians (30%), one archivist or manuscript librarian (10%), one general librarian with no rare book duties (10%), one full-time student (10%), one antiquarian bookseller (10%), one conservator, binder, or preservation librarian (10%), one antiques dealer (10%), one digital librarian (10%).

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