David Seaman
No. 22: Electronic Texts and Images
13-17 March 2000

1) How useful were the pre-course readings?

1: Fairly useful. All readings were available online; this has pros and cons. (Pro: accessible, con: hard to read lots of screens of text.) 2: Very useful - especially the "Gentle Introduction to SGML." I got through all of them and they were a good preparation. 3: Fine. 4: "XML: 6 steps": Since we used an already existing DTD, I found it overly-detailed. I would use an existing DTD rather than create. 5: Very useful. 6: Very. 7: Quite useful as an overview - though easy to get bogged down in detail if not careful. 8: Very useful in helping me absorb the material in the course and get up to speed on material that was new to me. 9: N/A 10: Good selection. Took about 15 hours. 11: They were quite relevant.

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. They will be more useful in the future. 2: There wasn't too much handed out, but I'll hang on to it; the pre-course readings will be more helpful in the long term. 3: Amply so. 4: Yes, as well as all the online materials that are linked to from the Etext site. 5: Yes. 6: Both [appropriate and useful]. 7: The resources link page I anticipate will be very useful. 8: Both the electronic and the paper syllabus were useful (especially the electronic one) and I look forward to using the course materials on my own after the course. 9: Yes, the online materials and references provide more reading than I could do in a lifetime. 10: Yes. 11: Yes. They will remain a help in the future as will the web resource page.

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

1: Yes. 2: Yes, although I wouldn't have minded an even quicker pace so we could cover more of the implementation issues. 3: Absolutely. 4: Mostly, although the way all the pieces work together is still not entirely clear. How does an ISO special character view properly from a list of 60 characters? 5: Yes; however, I do think there's room for some more advanced ideas. DS explains complicated ideas in a clear manner and answers questions at the level they're asked. 6: Yes. Also, speed of course (rapidity with which material was covered) was good. 7: Sure, yeah. 8: The intellectual level was appropriate and also flexible (adjusted on the fly depending on what we knew). 9-11: Yes.

4) If your course had field trips, were they effective?

1: Yes. It was helpful to see equipment in ILL and Special Collections as well as use equipment in the Etext Center. 2: Seeing the digital cameras wasn't particularly important to me. I would have preferred more class time. 3: Yes. 4: Yes, very helpful. 5-6: Yes. 7: Good to see the physical scanning process and set-up in operation. 8: Yes - the time spent in Special Collections, especially visits to the imaging facilities was very well spent. 9: Yes. 10: Yes. Current Special Collections exhibit was excellent (2nd floor exhibit hall). 11: Yes.

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?

1-6: Yes. 7: Sure, yeah. 8: Yes, the content fit the description, fit the course. 9-11: Yes.

6) What did you like best about the course?

1: Mixture of theory and practice. Also, DS's ability to answer questions clearly and quickly give (or demonstrate) examples of solutions and options. 2: Good instruction and a good group of people to work with. DS did an admirable job of managing a class of people with a wide variety of skill levels and interests. 3: The instructor's knowledgeableness and spirited delivery. 4: Hands-on stuff. 5: The course was wonderful! DS has a great sense of humor; the atmosphere was relaxed and collaborative. It's great that we actually created a project. The course ended with a feeling of success. 6: DS's ability to: a) explain things quickly and clearly; b) listen to and understand questions, then answer them well; and c) present micro and macro level info and tie them together for a full understanding of TEI/EAD/etext issues. 7: The hands-on work really allowed me to understand what exactly was being done and how it worked. 8: A wonderful introduction to theory and practice, stimulating intellectual exchange. Set up future work and institutional development. 9: The application of course content to a real project. 10: a) Described current state of the field nationally and internationally. b) All questions answered fully and in depth. 11: DS. It is not easy to teach coding and to teach in an electronic classroom. DS's pacing was good. He is one of the better instructors I have seen.

7) How could the course have been improved?

1: Perhaps more time for questions relating to students' projects. Maybe an informal brainstorming session (limited time, but students would benefit from DS's and others' suggestions). 2: I would be less interested in the section on grant-writing and more perhaps on philosophical issues. 3: Barely. 4: a) I would have liked to parse and correct my own document. DS did this for us, which was helpful on the first couple, but I think he could have shown us how to do it. That would have been helpful. b) I would have liked more time to correct documents after parsing, on our own. It's helpful to see on the screen and make more corrections. Friday pm, too much time was spent on overall appearance of site and not enough on our individual pieces. 5: N/A: it was perfect. 6: Extend the course and teach PERL. 7: Better chairs would be nice. The course had us sitting and staring at monitors 6 hours/day. Given the content, I'm not sure how to avoid that, but.... 8: By having a second course that builds on the first. 9: It was perfect as it could be given the fact that technology is always changing and we are in the midst of it all. 10: Free software tools on disk. 11: No substantive suggestions.

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: If possible, more desk space/surface space, if etext class transcribes from original manuscripts at computer terminals. 2-4: N/A. 7: A brief primer on manuscript handling would not have been out of order before we were given the letters to work with. 8: No problems I saw. 9: N/A 10: Some fragile papers may require gloves. 11: The care of Rare Book collections materials was careful and appropriate.

9) Please comment on the quality/enjoyability of the various RBS activities in which you took part outside of class (eg Sunday night dinner, evening lectures, Bookseller Night, Study Night, videos, &c.).

1: Enjoyable, but I found I needed to skip one or two events in order to sit down and really think about how to relate what I was learning to my current work projects. 2: Sunday: Better food! Monday: Lecture good on future Etext Center possibilities. Tuesday: Bummed that Daedelus wasn't open longer. Wednesday: N/A to my interests. Thursday: Did not attend; had seen many of the videos before, so I skipped it. 3: Suggestion for Thursday night: two machines in separate rooms, so there is a choice of films (having missed the lunchtime screening of the Making of a Renaissance Book). I should have loved the opportunity to see it on Thursday. 4: OK. 5: Fine. 6: The ones I attended were enjoyable. 7: Enjoyed Sunday dinner, Bookseller Night (although not all the sellers stayed open). Video Night should have come earlier in the week - we were pretty wiped out by Thursday. Wednesday Study Night: I showed up early, no one was there, I left. 8: I missed the videos. Everything else was enjoyable and pedagogically useful. 9: Evening lecture - superb! Videos gave an idea of what rare book materials are out there - and if they're out there, RBS has them. 10: All [activities] were useful and enjoyable. Rare Book library and sample files very complete. 11: TB's Sunday night lecture was an informative joy. DS's Monday lecture was provocative and strong. I'm sorry I missed Study Night. Except for the "Warrior Ant," Video Night was good. TB's performance video was especially strong (I'm not joking - good job).

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

1: If time permits, really explore and try to encode a document using TEI or EAD. Then you will be able to ask questions from a practical perspective. 2: I would definitely support having graduate students take the weight off of DS at least partially for teaching this introductory course and directing his energies towards an advanced technical course dealing more with the nitty-gritty of implementation. 3: It was an exhilarating experience, worth the money (though it's easy for me to assert this since we're talking about my institution's money!) 4:Very worthwhile. Do it before imaging projects are underway, if possible. 5: Be sure to ask for clarification when you have questions - your questions will be well answered. Yes [got my money's worth]. 6: Most definitely [got my money's worth]. 7: Still not quite sure how practical it is for my school to start doing TEI stuff; we don't have any sort of economy of scale. 8: More than my money's worth. A great course with a great instructor. 9: DS and the Etext Center are not cutting edge - they're BLEEDING EDGE! His knowledge of technology is masterful and his delivery artful. The class was worth every moment of my time (the most precious commodity of all). 10: Yes [got my money's worth]. 11: I certainly got my money's worth. The week was quite enjoyable.

Number of respondents: 11

Percentages

There were one archivist/manuscript librarian (9%), one general librarian with some rb duties (9%), two general librarians with no rb duties (18%), 3 teacher/professors (28%), one full-time student (9%), 1 digital resources librarian (9%), 1 database/web programmer (9%), and 1 p.t. library student/writer (9%).

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