1) How useful were the pre-course readings?

1: The readings were helpful, but not all of them were necessary to prepare for the course. I will enjoy looking at some of the articles again now that class is over. 2: Yes, very relevant and useful for background to the course as well as for future references. 3: Good prep. Useful. 4: They were useful. 5: The pre-course readings were very helpful and definitely aided in understanding the quite technical content of the course. 6: Very useful -- it gave me a good overview of the course. 7: Very useful and informative; however, after gaining so much knowledge I would like to go back and reread the materials now with a firmer grasp. 8: Quite useful. 9: Readings were often hard to find, but were excellent when available. 10: Very. The Zboray book on antebellum American book business was not very interesting.

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. I am happy to have the charts and handbook; they will help me identify book covers in the future. 2: Yes, very useful, particularly the bibliography. 3: Will be useful. 4: They will be extremely useful. 5: Definitely helpful -- particularly the workbook with its explanations of the book cloth making process (from an 1853 book) and the grain sample. I will treasure the booklet on cloth care from the Library of Congress. 6: Yes. 7: All terribly wonderful. 8: Very helpful -- I will definitely use them in future. 9: No syllabus was distributed -- although giving one out might actually cramp this instructor's style! 10: Yes.

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

1: Yes. 2: Absolutely. 3: Yes. 4: Absolutely. 5: Yes; and the repetition, slides, and show of many books helped enormously. 6: Yes, very much so. 7: Yes, quite. 8-10: Yes.

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

1: Yes. The trip to Special Collections was beneficial. Our afternoon sessions in the Rotunda where we each chose and described books from the era just discussed were excellent. 2: Yes, we used every minute available to look at the bindings and we were able to look at books that were very significant that we would not have been able to see otherwise. 3: Yes. 4: The exercises in the Rotunda were especially instructive and actually a lot of fun! 5: We made several trips to the Rotunda for laboratory work, and the hands-on experience was invaluable, as was the visit to Special Collections. 6: Yes. 7: Extremely well spent; our visit to Special Collections was a lovely addition to the course, and our sessions in the Rotunda were so practical and informative. 8: Yes. 9: Very well spent. 10: Yes.

5) What did you like best about the course?

1: SA's instruction on the identification and description of bookbindings is so complete and thorough I will be able to apply the knowledge immediately in my cataloging. The course was very practical. Also, we had a particularly good group of students. Prepared, interested in the material, fun to be with. 2: Being able to look at the bindings. Seeing photographic representations of the books in the binding reference materials is useful, but being able to look at the books themselves was invaluable. 3: The time line well defined. 4: The teacher. She is an exceptionally gifted teacher. Her enthusiasm is so contagious. She makes everybody in class feel very comfortable and special by her unfailing encouragement and support. I have learned to look at a book in a totally different way than I did before taking this course. 5: SA -- her ability to describe, her enthusiasm, her slides, and incredible knowledge. 6: The instructor and the opportunity to see so many wonderful bindings. I learned so much largely due to SA's enthusiasm and her way of teaching us how to look at a book. I will never view bindings in quite the same way again. 7: SA's enthusiasm and knowledge of the subject made such an impact on the way in which we all learned -- very enthusiastically. 8: SA's enthusiasm and knowledge and the ability to view and handle the materials. 9: The instructor (of course) and the great depth of the RBS collections. 10: Chance to handle real books of the period.

6) How could the course have been improved?

1: I can't imagine. 2: I don't see how it could be improved in the week we had available. 4: I don't see how -- except for being longer. 6: Can't say. 7: The only improvement could be that it run longer. 8: I can't think of any possible improvement. 9: Hard to imagine improvement.

7) 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?

1: I really don't think it would be such a bad thing to let a bunch of rare book librarians open and handle the books more. In fact, it might be better for the books to be passed in the baskets than held by helpers and walked about the room. 2: The baskets worked well for the books, but caused traffic jams occasionally. I'm not sure how to improve the flow. 3: Regarding the folio sized Grammar of Ornament in rare book collections, all pages and plates are single sheets and are loose within the original case. They may be better stored in a box and the case kept with them -- or some other conservation technique. 4: Little foam wedges in the baskets might have helped. 5: I believe that the more we can handle books the better! Vince Golden was most helpful! 6: None that I can think of. 7: All materials were handled rather delicately and professionally. I don't think there is much room for improvement. 8: Again, I can't think of any improvement. It all worked well. 9: Use of baskets was an excellent idea.

8) If you attended the Sunday and/or Monday night lectures, were they worth attending?

1: Yes. 2: Yes, Sunday for the history and state of RBS and Monday for a topic that was somewhat new to me. 3-4: Yes. 5: I only attended the Monday night lecture and feel it was worthwhile. As a Charlottesville resident we hope they continue. 6: Yes, they were interesting to a degree. 7: All were worth attending, and Greer Allen's was simply delightful. 8: Definitely, especially GA's. 9: Very much so. 10: Yes.

9) If you attended Study Night, was the time profitably spent?

1: Yes. I enjoyed meeting the other students and the instructor before class. 2: Yes, it was very useful to look at the binding study collections and the various reference collections. 3: Very much so. 4: Somewhat, but I wish that we could have taken the books down from the three shelves in the classroom. 6: I did find the other evening activities more interesting -- on the whole. 7: Yes, I enjoyed reading some of the materials and looking at the exhibits. 8: Yes, very interesting. 9: N/A. 10: Yes.

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

1: Yes. Do your homework, pay attention, have fun. 2: Yes, SA is a wonderful teacher and person. I feel privileged to have taken her course. 3: The time was filled 100% and I think it is a good economy of time and money. Thank you. 4: Absolutely! This class was by far the RBS class that I have enjoyed the most -- and that tells a lot! 5: Definitely got my money's worth. It increased the knowledge of my collection of travel accounts of Italy enormously and my ability to describe what I have in an annotated bibliography. 6: Of the three RBS courses I've taken, this one was the most fun! 7: Absolutely. It has been a wonderful experience and I thoroughly loved it. 8: Excellent course; I learned so much! 9: The TA (VG) was an extremely valuable addition to the course. 10: Yes.

Number of respondents: 10

There were six rare book librarians (60%), one general librarian with some rare book duties (10%), one conservator, binder, or preservation librarian (10%), one book-collector (10%), and one conservation technician and private bookbinder (10%).

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