Katharine E. S. Donahue and Joan Echtenkamp Klein No. 23: Introduction to the Curatorship of Historical Health Science Collections 22-26 July 1996

1. How useful were the pre-course readings? 1: Useful readings for the most part. 2: Very useful. They helped to fill in gaps (regarding my professional experience/training); I felt adequately prepared for the course as a result. 3: The pre-course readings were very helpful to get a grasp of the subject and to fill in gaps. I was able to do all the reading and learned a lot about medicine and medical literature. 5: Fund raising reading was most useful. The general history of medical texts could have been skipped or de-emphasized. 6: Very useful in introducing the eventual focus of the course. 7: The pre-course readings were useful. I was able to acquire all of them. I use most on a daily basis.

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: I expect that the handouts will be very usefulI will duplicate them for my assistant. 2: These items were extremely valuable. They will be used for policy making, professional development, outreach work, and other useful endeavors. 3: They were useful and will be even more useful when I get home and have a chance to study them further. 4: Definitely useful. Will be reading and evaluating the many handouts when I return home, but I believe many are new to me and will be relevant. 5: Yes; I'll be creating/adding to several files back home. 6: We received many extremely useful handouts. 7: The materials distributed in class were useful. They will be re-examined at my home institution. Good exchange.

3. Was the intellectual level of the course content appropriate? 1: My expectation was of a course dealing with policy and management issuesthis course met these expectations quite well. 2: Yes. Both instructors displayed a high degree of professionalism and scholarly expertise. I was kept on my toes and intellectually engaged throughout. 3: Yes. The intellectual level of the course was just right very stimulating. The two instructors were excellent and well prepared. 4: Yes. 5: Yes, and a good mixture of backgrounds of students and instructors. 6: Most definitely so. 7: Yes.

4. If your course had field trips, were they effective? [The course made a day trip to Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.] 1: Yes, for the most part. The trip to Richmond illustrated the considerable difference in resources and mission of medical history collections. 2: Yes. Jody Koste's presentation at the Tompkins-McCaw Library resonated well with our course material. The trip to Richmond was extremely educational and the collection complemented JEK's quite nicely. 3: Yes, we learned much from the trip to Richmond. JK did an excellent job and made it entertaining and varied. 4: Yes. Our field trip provided us with an experience of another sort of repository. The guest speaker was most knowledgeable about the day's lecture topics. 5: Field trip was very well spent, given that we met the expert who had facilities and collections not found at UVa. 6: We had an excellent field trip to Medical College of Virginiathe emphasis on archives and artifacts there gave us a great idea of another side of things. 7: Yes. The field trip was informative and the speaker wonderful.

5. Did the actual course content correspond to its RBS brochure description and Expanded Course Description (ECD)? Did the course in general meet your expectations? 1: Yes. 2: Yes. The course actually exceeded my expectations! An extremely well-managed, informative, enlightening experience! 3: Yes. The course more than met my expectations. 4: The course did not correspond to the RBS brochure or course description, but I understand that the focus shifted after the instructors received our applications. The shift was beneficial to my needs and met my expectations. 5: The course exceeded my expectations because we concentrated on policy, administration, management, developmentthe things I needed, as opposed to the historical content I already had. 6: Yes, in every respect. Although I am not a novice in the job, I have felt the lack of a systematic framework. The course very admirably provided it for me. 7: Yes. Exploring theory was refreshing. Instructors were very approachableopen and sharing of their experience.

6. What did you like best about the course? 1: The lengthy, and lively, discussions. The class members even continued these through lunch and dinner. 2: Our discussions gave us an opportunity to explore topics fully, given the participants' varying experiences. We all were given an opportunity to participate and share our observations and ideas. With this active participation, we really tried the concepts on for size. I learned much more that I would have from a regular lecture-style course. This was a very vital and enthusiastic seminar experience. 3: The discussion of all aspects of maintaining health service collections, but especially learning about all the different Web pages for medical librarians. 4: The people. The students. The instructors. 5: 1) The collection of viewpoints and debate contributed by all students and instructors. 2) The development and fund raising guest lecturesbecause of good information, delivered well, in areas that were most foreign to me. 3) The class bonded, allowing discussion that was more in depth and revealing than would have been anticipated in most class or seminar situations. 6: We had an excellent small group with very cordial interchange. The two instructors were very well prepared and gave the impression that they had done this many times before. 7: The guest speakers were all very informative. They sparked a lot of ideas. The networking done with the other students was great. A great combination of studentsgood mesh.

7. How could the course have been improved? 1: For me, perhaps more information on the care, handling, etc., of rare booksbut in a course such as this, everyone had different needs, which overall were met. 2: Perhaps a bit more hands-on handling experience. I would have liked to see a few more examples of items. 3: Perhaps looking at a few more of the rare medical books. 4: As a first-time offering, I feel the instructors did a remarkable job covering a wide range of topics. There is so much ground to cover it behooves us all to address adequately every issue involved. I expect as this course evolves (and I hope that it does), it will become more focused. We had a frantic pace all week, but I suppose this is not unusual at RBS. 5: 1) Even more guest lectures/discussion by other successful collection curators and managers. It was helpful to know we're all in the same boatit would be even more helpful to hear success stories. 2) Get students to bring copies (for all attendees) of their brochures, annual reports, policy and procedure handouts and forms, etc., to add to the material distributed . 3) Rein in some discussion that dragged on or was dominated by one individualbut this will come with experience. 6: It was comfortable and appropriate meeting in JEK's collection area, but I felt somewhat removed from the RBS hub. 7: Keep it the way it isa good exchange opportunity.

8. Please comment at will on the quality/enjoyability of the various RBS activities in which you took part outside of class, e.g. Sunday afternoon tour, Sunday night dinner and videos, Bookseller Night, tour of the Etext Center or Electronic Classroom, printing demonstrations, evening lectures, &c. 1: The lectures were OKI would have liked lectures with some analysis (rather than purely description). More importantwhy no question/answer period after the lectures? 2: Michael Winshipvery interesting and enjoyable (fabulous illustrations!), but the sound was a bit fuzzy. TBVery good blend of highly pertinent information and subtle, ironic humor. Highly enjoyable and relevant observations for us all. 3: Quality and enjoyability of the evening lectures was high. I enjoyed all three very much. The lectures made me feel I was again back in the real world of books and ideas. 4: MWhad higher expectations of profiting from this lecture, whose subject I'm completely ignorant about. TBvery much enjoyed. Literate and entertaining. (Sorry to hear about UT Austin's conservation program folding.) 5: TB's was the best of the threeinformative, provocative, and inspiring. 6: Did not go to all, but enjoyed when I did.

9. Any final thoughts? 1: Very useful course. Good speakers, thoughtful discussions. 2: Do the readings, get lots of sleep (for assimilating the wealth of material), and don't forget your cards. (This was a great opportunity for networking.) Thank you! 3: Highly recommended for medical librarians. Refreshing for everyone. A very congenial and intelligent group of classmates. 6: It was really worth it for a total approach to health sciences curatorship. While remaining thoroughly professional, KD and JEK managed to instill much vitality into the discussions! 7: Take the course if you cana good experience for special collections librarians in the health sciences.

Number of respondents: 7

PERCENTAGES Leave Tuition Housing Travel Institution gave me leave Institution paid tuition Institution paid housing Institution paid travel 86% 57% 43% 29% I took vac- tion time I paid tui- tion myself I paid for my own housing I paid my own travel 0% 14% 57% 71% N/A: self- employed, re- tired, or had summers off N/A: self employed, retired, or exchange N/A: stayed with friends or lived at home N/A: lived nearby 14% 29% 0% 0%

There were seven students: two were archivist/manuscript librarians (29%), two were rare book librarians (29%), one was an archivist/manuscript librarian with some rare book duties (14%), one was a rare book librarian/teacher/professor (14%), and one was a retiree, now a hospital library volunteer (14%).