Terry Belanger
I-20: Book Illustration Processes to 1900
22–26 July 2013
Detailed Course Evaluation
1) How useful were the pre-course readings? Did you do any additional preparations in advance of the course?
1: Very useful. While Gascoigne’s set-up is odd, it informs how this course works. Hults is good to go over but not the whole thing. 2: Very useful but difficult to put into context without real samples. Book does not go into printing process, which probably would have helped too. 3: Pre-course readings were essential. 4: The pre-course readings were very appropriate and useful. It’s a bit difficult to wade through Gascoigne—he himself refers to his book as a reference, not something to read straight through—but one really needs to be familiar with Gascoigne and the working vocabulary prior to the course. 5: Very useful. If anything, I wish I had had a chance to read Gascoigne twice. 6: Very useful. Mayor and Ivins were also useful. 7: Adequate—but really the pre-course reading is better post-course. 8: Very useful. No additional readings but worked very hard on the one assigned. 9: I read Gascoigne carefully, which was crucial (as TB said it would be). 10: Very useful. I looked at some illustrations in my collection to familiarize myself. Do the reading! 11: VERY useful. Essential to get started Monday morning. 12: Useful but a bit overwhelming. But that’s the nature of the subject!
2) Were the course workbook and other materials distributed in class appropriate and useful (or will they be so in the future, after you return home)?
1: Yes. The bibliography will be very useful. 1: Workbook was excellent. Great reading list. 3: The course workbook was invaluable, both during the course, and I believe afterwards. The bibliography will be tremendously useful. 4: The workbook is great. The extensive additional reading list is very appreciated, and I liked the brief comments on the prints in the playlist. 5: Yes, and yes. I think the packet list needs updating, though.... I sometimes had trouble finding which packet we were looking at. 6: Workbook was used throughout. 7: The workbook is superb. 8: I found them useful throughout the week. I expect to use them frequently in the future. 9: Yes, particularly the timeline, packet information, and reading list. 10–11: Yes. 12: Yes!
3) Have you taken one or more RBS courses before? If so, how did this course compare with your previous coursework?
1: Yes. The best! 2–4: N/A. 5: Yes. This course very much met the high quality I expected with RBS. Lots of teaching materials to work with and plenty of hands-on experience. 6: This course was more structured than the other courses I’ve taken before, with the exception of DesBib. 7: Much stronger content, focus, and time management. 8: N/A. 10: Yes. Same high level of quality. 11: Similar in excellent quality. I do wish we had time outside of class to study objects at our own pace (much like DesBib). Like the photo class I took last year, I wished for time to sit with examples and my notes. 12: Equally marvelous. Appreciated the limited advance reading.
4) What aspects of the course content were of the greatest interest or relevance for your purposes?
1: Identification of print processes in book production. This isn’t covered in this way in art history courses. 2: Seeing examples of the works is the perfect way to teach such a class—obviously you know this. Working with the press, doing three projects is very helpful, too. 3: Learning how to look at a print was most interesting and I believe will be most helpful. 4: How to tell the difference between processes. 5: I was interested in process but also wanted to leave being confident in at least basic identification. I got both. Plenty of interest to those generally interested in the history of printing. 6: Practice in identifying prints. 8: All—I will use information from each day for my research. 9: The focus is on identifying prints, which is exactly what I wanted. 10: All of it—identifying prints. 11: Samples of types, TB’s stories, ability to experience three processes. 12: Making prints and viewing so many originals. Being able to look at everything so closely under the glass.
5) Did the instructor(s) successfully help you to acquire the information, knowledge, and skills that the course was intended to convey? Was the intellectual level of the course appropriate?
1: Yes, and yes. 2: It was an honor and an exceptional experience to by taught by TB. 3: The course was intellectually challenging and always interesting. There was lots of fascinating background information about the acquisition of the materials we were viewing. 4: Yes. 5: Yes—although I was grateful that I had already taken Descriptive Bibliography. I might have been lost at points (and some people were) without knowing the basics of printing, type, and book structure. 6: Yes, and yes. 7: Absolutely. Yes, and yes. The level of instruction was true to the challenges of the material. 8: Yes, and yes. Both content and delivery was excellent—and challenging. 9: Yes. 10: Yes. TB is exceptionally skilled at speaking in terms that convey concepts. It is a bit high ended as far as the level, but it’s useful and appropriate. 11: Yes to both. 12: Yes, and yes.
6) What did you like best about the course?
1: Being able to take a course with TB. 2: Reviewing packets, playing with the press equipment. 3: Examining so many different prints, often multiple examples of a process. 4: Getting to see all the materials, particularly since there were enough sets to look at things simultaneously instead of the time lag of passing around a single example. TB is very knowledgeable, and his store of information is generously shared. Finally, I loved the labs. 5: The wide, wide variety of materials to explore hands-on! 6: The illustration packets and TB’s ruminations and explanations of them, and the labs. 7: The hands-on nature of the instructor and the attention to both technical and historical detail. And TB, of course. 8: Continual exposure to actual prints. 9: It is a real pleasure to learn from TB, particularly this course that is so well constructed. 10: Printing! Great part of the course was the hands-on. 11: Opportunity to make prints, see real examples. 12: The printing labs and the TB-isms.
7) How could the course have been improved?
1: A semester-long course. 2: Maybe some light overnight reading, like a course pack. 4: I wish we could have seen the plates for the etching being etched, even outside of class time. Also, although I don’t know if we have a litho press, seeing one done would have been neat. The hands-on aspects of the labs I found very useful, so expanding them would have been nice. 5: Slightly more intuitive course-book organization. 6: Better integration of UVA special collections material into the general flow of TB’s explanations (some were out of sync). 7: Beats me. 8: I would have liked access to the library books on the wall during breaks—I found them very useful but had little opportunity to use them. 9: I needed more time with the prints. An ideal setup would be similar to Descriptive Bibliography—workshops at night to get more experience identifying prints. 10: Wonderful course! Maybe more time to digest prints—perhaps a homework lab in the evenings. 11: See number three: I would have appreciated time to sit with items and examine at my own pace with my own notes. This is a frustration I have felt with other classes. My learning style requires time with my notes to truly absorb. 12: I’d like more time to do mini-tests throughout the week.
8) Did you learn what the course description/advertisement indicated you would learn? Additional comments optional. Y/N
1: Yes. 2: Yes. Absolutely. Perfect. 3–12: Yes.
9) Did you learn what you wanted in the course? Additional comments optional. Y/N
1: Yes. 2: Yes. It was far more than expected. I did not know what I did not know. 3–12: Yes.
10) How do you intend to use or apply the knowledge or skills learned in this course?
1: Assess my institution’s catalog records and use in courses covering aspects of book history. 2: It will help me steer the dialogue about this very important area of collecting. 3: As a collector, the knowledge will help me better understand the illustrations in the books I own and better understand description and appropriateness of those I might want to add to my collection. 4: Identifying prints. 5: Identification in books, work on how print shops worked. 6: As needed in the workplace. 7: This will support me, mostly, in prints collection and connoisseurship. 8: I will apply this knowledge directly to my research which involves prints from 1502–present. 10: As a rare book librarian in public service I will use this when discussing illustration with patrons and I will incorporate this new, extensive knowledge into my classes that I teach. 11: Hope to identify types of materials in circulating collections relating to issues of transfer, &c. 12: In the classroom and with researchers. In acquisitions, judging value of gifts, duplicate gifts, &c.
11) If your course left its classroom, was the time devoted to this purpose well spent?
1–8: N/A. 10: Yes. Print shop. Amazing. 12: N/A.
12) If you attended the evening events (e.g., RBS Lecture, Video Night, RBS Forum, Booksellers’ Night) were they worth attending?
1: Yes. Lectures were both quite interesting. 2: Yes—I enjoyed them. 3: Enjoyed the lectures and booksellers’ night. 6: N/A. 7: The lectures were very worthwhile. 8: Yes. I would attend all events again. 9: Monday night’s lecture was a disappointment. 10: Some, not all. They were enlightening but not incredible. 12: N/A.
13) 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: None. We were able to see and handle so many items. 6: None. 8: All (student and staff alike) were quite attentive. 12: Teach students how to lift large prints. Have everyone clear the decks when plates are passed around the room.
14) Did you (or your institution) get your money’s worth? Would you recommend this course to others?
1: Yes, and yes! 2: Yes—definitely. 3: Yes! Yes! 4–5: Yes, and yes. 6: N/A. Yes, enthusiastically. 8: Absolutely. I have already done so. 9: Yes, and yes. 10: Yes. Absolutely. An amazing class taught by the legendary TB. Enough said. 11: Yes to both. 12: Yes!
15) Any final or summary thoughts, or advice for other persons considering taking this course in a future year? (If you have further praise/concerns, please speak with Amanda Nelsen or Michael Suarez.)
1: Take this course!! It is well worth the money and time (including the pre-course readings). 2: It would be nice to have more sign-up opportunities with classmates, for example around a specific topic. 7: If you have the opportunity to take this course—with Belanger—you have lived, at least bibliophilically, a charmed life. 8: This is an excellent course and an amazing experience. I know of no other place where you can view and study so many prints by type in such an informative environment. 9: Kudos to Tess Goodman, an amazingly good T.A. in this course. 10: Do the reading. Relax. You will miss many questions on the text. Everybody does. Get TB to tell stories. Take it. 11: Thanks for another great year.
Aggregate Statistics
Number of respondents: 12
Leave
Institution gave me leave: 8 (67%)
N/A: self-employed, retired, or had summers off: 4 (33%)
Tuition
Institution paid tuition: 9 (75%)
I paid tuition myself: 2 (17%)
N/A: self-employed, retired, or scholarship: 1 (8%)
Housing
Institution paid housing: 6 (50%)
I paid for my own housing: 3 (25%)
N/A: home, friends, or scholarship: 3 (25%)
Travel
Institution paid travel: 5 (42%)
I paid my own travel: 3 (25%)
N/A: lived nearby, or scholarship: 4 (33%)
Which one category most closely defines what you do for a living, or why you are at RBS? (Please check only one category)
Book collector: 2 (17%)
Conservator/binder/preservation librarian: 1 (8%)
Student, Ph.D. (humanities): 1 (8%)
Rare book librarian: 3 (25%)
College, full or associate professor: 1 (8%)
University, assistant professor: 1 (8%)
Administrator: 1 (8%)
Archivist with rare book duties: 1 (9%)
Publisher: 1 (9%)
How did you hear about this course?
RBS website: 2 (17%)
Work colleague: 1 (8%)
Word of mouth: 8 (67%)
Other: Dissertation Advisor: 1 (8%)