1)How useful were the pre-course readings? 1: Very useful. An excellent introduction - nice and broad. 2: Good overview on book collecting. 4: Very useful and interesting. 5: Useful, very. 7: Very informative. 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: The exit bibliography and handouts will spread the course benefits over months to come. The taxation booklet alone is almost worth the tuition. 2: OK. 3: Overmuch - too much discarded. 4: Yes. 5: Yes. Yes. 6: Yes. The syllabus was helpful to organize notes. The booklists and Website will be especially useful. 7: Many of the readings will greatly improve my collecting habits, but I think too many extraneous documents circulated that proved distracting or irrelevant. 3)Was the intellectual level of the course content appropriate? 1-5: Yes. 6: Yes - I am a beginning collector and got some very useful direction. 7: At moments, the class discussions were quite insightful. At other moments, I found the anecdotes quite distracting - or should I say boring. 4)If your course had field trips, were they effective? 1: Yes - good tour of Special Collections. 2-4: Yes. 5: Special Collections - yes. 6: Yes. Our visit to Special Collections showed us some wonderful high points and mentioned areas of excellence in the library. Collectors from elsewhere should know this. 7: Yes. But I expected more time to tour Special Collections. 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? 1-5: Yes. 6: Yes. The exercise in book pricing was helpful, both in learning about pricing resource information and the wide variations in pricing by dealers. 7: Yes. 6) What did you like best about the course? 1: The interaction between WPB and TB was lively and enlightening. Hearing the input of other collectors from a broad spectrum. Excellent handouts. 2: It gave me the overview I was looking for that I need to be a better collector. 4: Every aspect was excellent. 5: Content directed to collecting methods. Content directed to deaccession planning. 6: The whole week built up well from day to day, i.e., using the knowledge from Monday's discussion to add substance to Thursday's. 7: The opportunity to hear the collecting habits and the collecting interests of the course participants. 7) How could the course have been improved? 1: I would have liked a bookseller as a guest speaker. 2: I would like to have had a discussion on the focus of collections, i.e., how and why a collector picks a given specialization. 3: Bring in at least one bookseller or bookselling couple to talk about collecting from the seller's point of view. This could rotate among many interesting people available locally. 4: Invite local booksellers to a session. 5: Time, hour and minute, defined segments of instruction, i.e., first period, 9-10:30: Book Auctions. 6: I see no way to improve the course. 7: Bring in bookshop owners so that we can barrage them with our questions. 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: None. Handled well. 2: None. 5: None. 6: We had a class of careful book handlers. 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, etc. 1: I enjoyed the events I went to. It would help if the van for Bookseller Night could be a little less randomly scheduled (e.g., set times for departure from UVa and the Mall and keep to them). 2: Events were enjoyable and well spaced in time. 3: The Etext Center tour was fascinating, and Richard Wendorf's talk was very interesting. 4: Learned a lot - fun. 5: Sunday dinner - pleasant. Sunday videos - too many (should limit to one) [Why not just leave, if you're bored? -Ed.]. Evening lectures - enjoyed. Bookseller Night - needed two nights. 6: As a local resident, I attended only the two lectures, but both were excellent. 7: I enjoyed the Tuesday evening tour of book shops. 10)Any final thoughts? Did you get your money's worth? 1: This course is good for collectors, both personal and institutional, who want to get a good introduction to what they're doing. I got my money's worth, definitely. 2: No last thoughts. Yes, I got my money's worth. 3: More than worth the price of admission. 4: Take it - you'll enjoy the instructors, the other class members, and you'll be a better collector! 5: I would like to have had a dealer in the course. 6: Indeed, I did get my money's worth. (Just wish I had more to spend for books.) Number of respondents: 7 PERCENTAGES Leave Tuition Housing Travel Institution gave me leave 29% Institution paid tuition 13% Institution paid housing 46% Institution paid travel 39% I took vacation time 14% I paid tuition myself 43% I paid for my own housing 50% I paid for my own travel 43% N/A: Self-employed, retired, or had time off 57% N/A: Self-employed, retired, or exchange 43% N/A: Stayed with friends or lived at home 14% N/A: Lived nearby 14% There were seven students: three (43%) were at RBS as book collectors, two (29%) were rare book librarians with personal collecting interests, one (14%) was a full-time student, and one (14%) was a systems librarian with some rare book duties and strong personal collecting interests.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]