75: Publishing EAD Finding Aids [L-85]
4-8 August 2003
1) How useful were the pre-course readings?
1: Very useful. I felt very prepared for the class because of the readings. 2: They were very useful; having a reminder a few weeks ahead of time about a couple of them was very helpful. 3: Very useful. I’d used some already in self-training. 4: Just right. It might have been useful to include copies of the XSL code to review in advance. 5: Yes. Good background. 6: Very useful. 7: Useful, but will be more useful after the class. 8: The pre-course readings were a combination of basic instructions and very technical and served as a good foundation. 9: Because I was not familiar with the XSLT language, the pre-course readings were difficult. During the week (and I imagine afterwards) they will undoubtedly be extremely helpful. 10: Many of the readings did not make sense to me before class, except for the introductory texts. However, once the class started, I went back and reread items, and they became much clearer. It would have helped to have the Rostov XML in advance. 11: They tended, for the most part, to make a lot more sense after the course was underway, but overall very helpful.
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: Both useful now and when I return. 2: I would have liked to have had more sample stylesheets to take home with me, both XSLT and XSL-FO, particularly since we didn’t have time to cover the latter very much. 3: Yes. 4: Yes. 5: Yes, especially sample code. 6: Yes. 7: Yes. 8: We never referred to the syllabus in class. Some of it is repeated from the pre-course readings. I hope to read it when I return home. 9: Yes, the handbook, and the bibliography in particular, will be useful. 10: The XSLT (Kay) chapters were useful, and will continue to be useful. I would like to have had more of the stylesheets printed out, and included in the handbook (XSLT built-ins, for example). 11: Yes. Especially the package of (free) software tools. This will save an enormous amount of time and effort.
3) Was the intellectual level of the course content appropriate?
1: Yes. 2: Yes, it seemed appropriate, although it sometimes wandered into areas that were far more advanced than the topic we were actually covering. 3-7: Yes. 8: Yes -- very challenging. 9: Since everyone in the class seemed to be on the “same page” starting out, I believe the content was appropriate for all. 10-11: Yes.
4) What did you like best about the course?
1: The willingness of the instructor to go deeper into a topic when it seemed appropriate. 2: The course covered the aspects of XSLT that we’ll need to write stylesheets and DP did it in a very knowledgeable yet pleasant, humorous way. 3: That it was taught by someone with a library/humanities background. Too often in my job we’re trained by companies with business orientation. I needed to know how to program EAD, not sales accounts! So, great. The broad, how to think about it, advice. I was disabused of many burdensome and inaccurate ideas about code in general, and XSLT specifically, of course! 4: Hands-on experience writing XSLT stylesheets and using them to transform documents. 5: The instructor was extremely knowledgeable and communicated well. 6: Hands-on at the computer. 7: Got a good overall view of XSLT. Energy of instructor. Encouragement from instructor and openness to questions. 8: Learning how to create an XSLT stylesheet and, especially, one for creating a PDF document. 9: Hands-on instruction is necessary for this course, so it being held in the computer lab was important. Also, learning from one of the notable leaders in the field was a big bonus. 10: Learned a lot. DP was articulate, and shared anecdotes and theory, all helpful. 11: Patience of the instructor and his “approachability.” There was a lot of thought and care given to setting up a software environment that allowed us to “hit the ground running.” We didn’t have to waste time learning how to use the tools or assembling them.
5) How could the course have been improved?
1: The course covered the appropriate amount of material, but I think the course description in the catalog should be updated to reflect what is actually to be covered...more was described than covered. 2: The course was often derailed by a couple of individuals -- I would have enjoyed the brief time in the class if DP could have dealt with some of these individuals’ questions on an individual basis off-line. 3: Print or put in little text files and pass out code solutions to the exercises/problems beforehand. These could be just a base from which to work. I found my mind just shut down -- I can’t think and be a stenographer at the same time -- I found it increasingly hard to focus. 4: We should get the basic stylesheets in advance so we have a chance to study them. It was difficult to keep up with copying code while the instructor was revising it on the fly. 5: Almost too much material for one week. I’d like to have more time for formatting objects. 6: An overview of what all the XSLT commands do at the beginning of the first class. A pre-determined stylesheet which we pick apart during class. 7: Might have ditched the cookies for a simple EAD finding aid. Would have been useful to work through a simple stylesheet with maybe a few variations first where everything worked. Then looked at other ways of handling things that might or might not work. The idea of giving us the building blocks was excellent, but I’m not sure they were presented as clearly as they could have been. It would have been good to see an EAD stylesheet in operation and then elaborated on it. 8: DP needs to organize the class better. It is difficult to listen and absorb concepts and directions while also trying to watch what he is typing and type it myself. It would help if he had first talked about what are the components of a stylesheet, have printed examples to look at and make notes on, explain how it all goes together, then have us do the coding. He needs to explain what it is, what it does, and then do it. DP needs to stay on topic and not get side tracked by extraneous discussions. 9: If there was a syllabus or daily agenda. We might have covered more ground; on the other hand, we might have skimmed over too much info that way. 10: If DP had been better prepared in advance, would have accomplished more. He tried a few things that didn’t work (programming strategies), which used time, although seeing how he trouble-shooted was useful. It was very difficult to type, listen, correct, and run all at once. At times I was so busy typing to keep up that I missed important explanations. This needs to be reworked somehow. Time for watching and listening, time typing. Some of the tangents could have been avoided, to make more time for all the basics that had to be squeezed in. Also -- perhaps a couple of simple exercises that we would have to work out on our own, then go over as a group, would have been helpful. (Very simple though, not too complex -- the first couple of days). 11: Possibly through the use of short homework assignments (though the logistics would be tricky since we’d need access to workstations set up with all the software. This would have forced us to see how far we could get on our own and then come back to class to compare results. Printer in the classroom.
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?
2: N/A. 3: Just the above. 4-7: N/A. 8: We were not allowed into the computer classroom during lunchtime because the machines did not have security enabled. So, we were unable to practice during lunch or after class. 9-11: N/A.
7) If you attended the Sunday and/or Monday night lectures, were they worth attending?
1: Yes. 2: The Monday lecture was fabulous. 3: Yes! 4: Yes, very scholarly and entertaining. 5: N/A. 6: Yes. 7: Both were. 8: Yes -- TB’s history of RBS was less a list of numbers that he used to present in the past, and more analytical. Monday night’s speaker was both interesting and funny. I enjoyed the topic of printer as publisher and the eloquent delivery. 9: It was nice to meet others in the other classes before the week officially began. 10: Yes. I really enjoyed the Monday night lecture. It was enlightening, entertaining, and flew by quickly. 11: Lecture was fascinating, and the speaker was fun to listen to.
8) If you attended Museum Night, was the time profitably spent?
1: Yes. 2: It was entertaining. 3: Yes! 4-5: N/A. 6: Yes. 7: Yes. 8: Yes -- I attended Museum Night on Thursday in time for TB’s presentations of the Audubon prints comparison of reproductions. The videos, mostly, were equally informative and worthwhile, especially on French bookbinding and copperplate engraving. 9: N/A. 10: Yes. The Museum Night was not available last time I was here (that I recall). Being in the technology class, I enjoyed the opportunity to see actual books, plates, and techniques that were real, not “virtual.” 11: I would say interesting more than profitable.
9) Did you get your money’s worth? Any final thoughts?
1: Yes. 2: I’m not totally convinced I got my money’s worth, although I learned some more and added to what I already knew. 3: Yes! It was a great course. I enjoyed the “digressions” as well as the programming instruction. It was like a vacation to think and learn on a larger level than the work day tasks usually faced with. Very useful. 4: Yes. 5: Definitely worthwhile. Learned new ways of doing things that I can implement immediately. 6: Yes. Do the prerequisite reading. 7: I learned a lot, but I think I would have learned more if the course were re-structured perhaps as I suggest in question 6. I didn’t at all mind the slightly off-target discussions (actually quite a few were good in terms of context), but I didn’t think the live experimentation was as useful as it could have been if I’d seen a working document first. 8: I definitely got my institution’s money’s worth. RBS is always a jam-packed intense week. If anyone else wants to take Publishing EAD Finding Aids, I would recommend becoming immersed in XML -- and practicing it -- well before the class. The language is much different than HTML and SGML, and that, I believe, is one of the areas you really need to familiarize yourself with ahead of time. 9: I feel confident in tackling XSLT when I get back to my home institution. I would recommend this course. 10: Yes. XSLT is very difficult to teach in one week. 11: Yes -- definitely worth the money. Students need to be prepared for a teaching style that tends to let the agenda be strongly influenced by the questions that are asked (This is wonderful in many ways, but). This means that information was not always presented in a strictly logical order and sometimes seemed haphazard. We covered all the material, but not necessarily in an organized way.
Number of respondents: 11
Percentages
Leave Tuition Housing Travel
Institution Institution Institution Institution
gave me leave paid tuition paid housing paid travel
100% 100% 82% 91%
I took vaca- I paid tui- I paid for my I paid my own
tion time tion myself own housing travel
0% 0% 18% 9%
N/A: self- N/A: Self- N/A: stayed N/A: lived
employed, re- employed, with friends nearby
tired, or had retired, or or lived at
summers off exchange home
0% 0% 0% 0%
There were five archivists/manuscript librarians (44%), four general librarians with no rare book duties (36%), one general librarian with some rare book duties (10%), and one information tech specialist (10%).