1) How useful were the pre-course readings? 1: Very useful in focusing on issues related to cataloging of rare books. 2: Very helpful. 3: Very useful. 4: Very useful. It gave me the time to think about what we would discuss in class. 5: Very useful as general background; I was already quite familiar with some of the materials (e.g., DCRB, RBMS thesauri, DCRB examples). Having material available on the web was very helpful. 6: Very useful. 7: Fairly useful. Some readings helped to refresh my knowledge, others contained information that I found to be useful. 8: Somewhat useful. 9: Very helpful. They provided an excellent basis that the class then built on. 10: Very useful. Essential! 11: 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: For the most part. However, it would have been helpful to have had answer sheets for all of the practicums to refer to once I'm away from here. 2-3: Yes. 4: Yes, the syllabus was useful to consult. I know I will use the workbook in my job. 5: Yes, very. 6: Appropriate and useful, both in class and for future reference. 7: Yes, very! 8: Yes. 9: Yes, yes, yes! I will be using them on a regular basis. 10: Yes. Yes. 11: Yes. 3) Was the intellectual level of the course content appropriate? 1-3: Yes. 4: Yes. We didn't waste time on explanations of things we already all understood. Questions were always answered. 5-9: Yes. 10: Yes, right on. 11: Yes. 4) If your course had field trips, were they effective? 2: We went to Clemons for a very good demonstration of online resources for rare book cataloging. The information was very helpful. 3: Yes - the trip to Clemons to see Web sites was useful. 6: The special session on online resources for rare book catalogers held in Clemons Library was very useful. 11: Yes. 5) Did the actual course content correspond to its RBS brochure description and Ex-panded Course Description (ECD)? Did the course in general meet your expectations? 1-2: Yes. 3: Generally so. 4-7: Yes. 8: Yes, as far as I recall. 9: Yes, I gained what I hoped/needed. 10: Perfectly. 11: Yes. 6) What did you like best about the course? 1: It did provide hands-on instruction (to a degree) of the material covered and the instruction was very detailed. I certainly feel I learned a whole lot that I can apply. The instructor was good about answering questions. My only real problem was in the area of hands-on. 2: Getting to know the other class members. The detailed examples of rare book cataloging. 3: The systematic review of DCRB and the hands-on cataloging exercises. 4: I think it's a great preparation for beginning to catalog rare books. There is a great deal to know and I think I have a solid foundation now to begin work. 5: Total immersion in DCRB. Being able to ask questions about specific problems back home. Sharing ideas and frustrations with classmates. Building professional connections. 6: The clarity, organization, and thoroughness of the instructor. All aspects of the cataloging record were analyzed and assembled over the week and broader contextual questions were also discussed. 7: Course content and talking to other class members - in my own course and in others. 8: Many of my questions - most, in fact - were answered. Also, interacting with other rare book catalogers was invaluable. 9: Small class size allowed the instructor to talk to most people and individually go over assignments. 10: Discussion of access points. Practicum cataloging rare books. 11: Class discussion added a lot of interesting perspectives to the course. I'm glad we were able to do it. DJL was very approachable and made an effort to make everyone at ease about a subject that was new to many. 7) How could the course have been improved? 1: In the practicum area - since cataloging is best learned by a combination of hands-on and lecture and repetition, if we all could have had a set group of books (or fake books) to work on and to take our answers away with the correct record/answer sheet for reference, this would help. It was very difficult for DJL to get to all of us to review our practicums individually because of time and content pressures. To me that was a big weak point, particularly if these items were new. I would suggest using an electronic classroom where the actual book can be displayed to the whole class at once. Transparencies could be used by the students for answers and the instructor could indicate changes on them while looking at the book. 2: 1) More feedback on practice cataloging. This could be done with two-person teams doing two books together. 2) Have the book for format/transcription exercise in English with readable type. 3) For the practicum, to share more easily all the books done, have the students do the work on transparencies so they can be shown on overheads and corrected and commented on. The more books seen and observed, the better. 4) Try to schedule a printing demonstration for this course. 5) Try to schedule the use of materials (e.g., binding materials) on different days for different courses. There was a problem with our missing information because bindings were in use by another class. 6) Have a standard set of books that been cataloged to be used each time that the course is taught. Have answer sheets available (i.e., the correct catalog record) so students could have more than their own book records to look at. 7) Workbook examples should have answers distributed. 3: More teaching experience on the instructor's part. (However, she did a great job, especially in her first year.) Better organization of cataloging exercises. More feedback on the exercises. Less time discussing our dissatisfaction with LCSH, our institutions, &c. Friday afternoon's discussion on politics, organizational structure, and policy was boring to me. I would rather have cataloged more and got feedback. 4: More time to go over individual work of students. English-language books to work with if dictionaries are not provided. 5: The classroom discussion of the cataloging exercises could have been more effective with the use of an overhead projector or slides of examples. It's difficult to work with a blackboard and have 12 people crowding around. 6: In some of the analysis of DCRB, I should have welcomed it if rather more of the discussion had centered on examples. 7: A translation of the title page of the Fraktur exercise would have made it less frustrating. 8: I cannot say - it was excellent! 9: Either provide foreign language dictionaries or use examples in English. It's hard to tell if you understand a concept when you can't read/translate the work. Also, more time for the instructor to check everyone's work. 10: Many more visual aids could have been used: flip chart, white board, more actual rare book examples. There was too much sitting and too much talking. Instructor and students should have shown more, talked less. 11: I think that the few minor glitches will be smoothed over by next year. DJL needs a little stronger knowledge of bindings. It would have been smoother, too, if she had had more prior contact with the examples from the BAP collections. 8) We are always concerned about the physical well-being both of the BAP's 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: Put together multiple copies of a specific set of books for the exclusive use of the cataloging class. These would illustrate multiple points. Develop an answer sheet to be used with the workbook & be taken away. 2: Seemed OK. 4: Book rests and book weights would be a good idea. 5: All materials were handled carefully and came packaged very impressively. 6: All due care was taken (the instructor emphasized this when the materials were handed out). 8: Use of book cradles may have been useful for some of the older, more fragile materials we cataloged. 9: Cradles, maybe? 10: Use book cradles and soft weights. 11: I think this was all handled well. 9) Please comment on the quality/enjoyability of the various RBS activities in which you took part outside of class, eg Sunday afternoon tour, Sunday night dinner and videos, evening lectures, Bookseller Night, tour of the Alderman digital/electronic centers,, &c. 1: The lectures were boring and self-serving, particularly in light of the available material and expertise and knowledge here. Some other things which would have been more interesting would include seeing something being printed, seeing something being bound, the provenance of some interesting books or book collections (e.g., The University of Berlin Library during World War II, the library at Alexandria, &c. 2: Evening lectures were very disappointing except for Greer Allen's. I would like a printing demonstration or a bookbinding demonstration. I didn't know about the digital/electronic tours. 3: Sunday night dinner was excellent - an almost essential way to break the ice and meet at least some classmates before Monday morning. The videos we saw were excellent - more would be great, when relevant - bookbinding might be a good subject. I would have liked to see a printing demonstration - it could be very useful in this course. I would much rather see TB do a printing demonstration than hear his state of the BAP address. 4: Everything was very interesting, but the week was also exhausting. Perhaps more demonstrations and less talking. 5: I enjoyed Sunday night dinner and the Lindisfarne video as well as the afternoon tour. Why weren't we notified of the printing demonstrations and digital/electronic centers tours? Even though we were in Rare Book Cataloging, we all would have enjoyed seeing them! They should be open to all RBS students. 6: All were enjoyable and useful. 7: Sunday afternoon tour was informative and enjoyable. Bookseller Night was a wonderful diversion, but I think it would be better on Wednesday or Thursday night - by then people know one another. 8: Most enjoyable: Sunday night dinner, videos, tour, Bookseller Night. Least enjoyable: lectures. 9: OK. 10: Sunday night dinner was too expensive for just a cold plate - and too crowded. Videos were excellent. 11: They were all very enjoyable. 10) Any final thoughts? Did you get your money's worth? 1: Yes, but the course really could use more practicum. 2: I really would like more time with the instructor reviewing our practice work. As stated in no.7, above, this could be achieved with two-person teams of students. More hands-on with books rather than photocopied titlepages. 3: Yes, I got my money's worth, in the classroom and with the overall experience. 4: Make sure you tell them to do the reading before the course begins. A good instructor makes all the difference. DJL was wonderful. The course was quite stimulating. 5: Yes. 6: The course is not for beginners in rare book cataloging, but for catalogers who have already had experience with the problems of the job. I thought this made the course more useful and more intense. 7: Yes, I got my money's worth. 8: I would recommend it to anyone who is or will be cataloging rare materials. 9: Yes, I got my money's worth and I'm already scheming to get support to come back. 10: No final thoughts. Yep, I did. 11: I got my money's worth and will highly recommend this course to others. Thank you! Number of respondents: 11 PERCENTAGES Leave Tuition Housing Travel Institution gave me leave 100% Institution paid tuition 73% Institution paid housing 73% Institution paid travel 64% I took vacation time 0% I paid tuition myself 27% I paid for my own housing 27% I paid for my own travel 36% N/A: Self-employed, retired, or had time off 0% N/A: Self-employed, retired, or exchange 0% N/A: Stayed with friends or lived at home 0% N/A: Lived nearby 0% There were eleven students: eight (73%) were general librarians with some rare book duties, three (27%) were rare book librarians.