1) How useful were the pre-course readings?

1: Provided good preview to what would be covered in-depth in the class. 2: Extremely useful -- both before, AND will be after the course. 3: Good, although some indication of what to look at on some of the e-book Web sites would have been helpful. 4: Didn't do reading in depth. After skimming I felt I had enough familiarity with the subject, from other sources, not to read deeply. 5: Useful, however I had time to only scan some of it. 6: Very helpful as a general overview. 7: Very useful, what I was able to read, unfortunately the volume of reading was more than I could read before the class. 8: Very useful. And I will go back to them and the list of resources for future reference. 9: Very helpful, although some guidance in what we should read at some of the Web sites would have been helpful also. 10: Very. 11: Very useful. Helped me understand a new language. 12: Very useful. I had perused them as I tried teaching myself TEI and XML. 13: Could have been more focused on what we needed to read beforehand and what was for future reference.

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. 2: Yes, Yes, Yes! 3: Yes to both questions. 4-5: Yes. 6: Yes, I'd like to see a more comprehensive course pack with room for notes. 7: Yes -- many items were print-outs from Web sites which I had already printed at home. 8: Very. The course was beautifully planned and scheduled to eventually gain a sense of achievement. 9: Very much so -- we stuck to the syllabus quite well, and so I was able to review reading materials the night before each class. 10: Very. 11: Yes -- very. 12-13: Yes.

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

1: Yes. 2: Purrrfect! 3- 7: Yes. 8: To me, it was. 9: Yes -- much information that was new but presented in such a way as to make it a challenge rather than overwhelming. 10-11: Yes. 12: Absolutely! 13: Yes.

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

1: Yes. 2: Time well spent. We visited the E-text Center, the digitizing unit of Special Collections, and Special Collections reading room. 3- 5: Yes. 6: Yes, visits to see the digital cameras, microfilm scanner, and original letters were very useful. 7: Yes. 8: Special Collections, Digital Center ... being there, you could see everything presented in class made sense and was productive. 9: Pretty much so; the scanning images section didn't cover anything new to me, but that area was the greatest experience level coming in. 10: Yes. 11: Yes -- very -- especially the scanners. 12: Most definitely! 13: 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: Yes, logically this expanded description had more meaning. 8-9: Yes. 10: Yes -- and we seemed to cover even a bit in excess of the subject. 11: Yes. 12: Yes! 13: I think that the description could have been more helpful by telling us which subjects covered by the course would be emphasized and which would only be touched upon.

6) What did you like best about the course?

1: The extensive hands-on combined with lecture. There was a good balance. 2: 1) DS. 2) XML experience. 3) Great classroom space. 3: Without a doubt. The instructor: DS was able to take a number of large, difficult topics and make them understandable and fun! Great job! 4: The "hands-on" programming/marking-up of data. Doing is the only way to learn this stuff. 5: This course was an excellent introduction to the material, and I thought DS did an excellent job of explaining the material to a class that had people with a wide range of backgrounds. It made me realize how much I had already learned from DS (working on the Reed [yellow fever MSS collection digitization] project) and it filled in the empty areas in my understanding. I wish this course had been a requirement for the full staff of the Health Sciences Reed project during the first year and that I had been required to take this course at the onset of my employment (the second year of the project). While the one week was a good intro -- a second or third week course or a two week single course would be a good idea to go into the material further. 6: DS' sense of humor and the way he moved us through considerable material in a short amount of time in a clear manner. 7: The level at which we began was basic enough for me to understand the basic elements, and my understanding grew as the course progressed. 8: The significant amount of hands-on practice. DS was communicative, attentive, helpful. He was extremely generous with his wealth of knowledge. 9: I needed to know where the gaps in my knowledge were so I could fill them -- now I'll be able to. (And "books in space" is just fun!:)) 10: DS is a marvelous instructor. Aside from his obvious mastery of the subject, he approaches the material with a language and perspective familiar to the education of most of us. His examples were clear and relevant. He was open to questions and helpful with them. 11: Learning to implement codes and learn how they work (and why they are useful) while we were working on the letters. 12: The hands-on part. It was fun, and I would have liked to do more. In addition, I liked seeing the offshoot products such as the EAD, the Indexes, &c. 13: The hands-on marking up of the Civil War letter.

7) How could the course have been improved?

2: N/A. Everything was perfect. 3: Make it two weeks and somehow persuade my institution to still pay for it. Without that there isn't much to add. The course content was great and RBS is a fantastic experience. 4: I think this subject could use an advanced version to work with certain aspects in depth (stylesheets or "how to plan your new project"). 5: Two weeks instead of one. 6: More thorough course packet on which I could take notes. 7: The text encoding/tagging part of the course was muted somewhat by the side trips to other departments. Those trips were valuable; however, a concentration on the document text encoding at the beginning of the course followed by the other aspects of the course would have been more fruitful learning expenditures. 8: Difficult to say -- follow-up? 10: Please offer a Part II in which we could learn more about style sheets and complex searching. 11: No way. 12: Have more detail and work on more material. I really liked the idea and feel of creating something that will be real and online. I would like this to be two weeks either consecutive or non-consecutive. 13: Could this course be split in two in a logical way? There was so much to learn. I hope that I can retain it all so I can put it to good use.

8) 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?

2: Special Collections materials handled with extreme care. 6: None. 7: None -- precautions seemed to do the job. 9-10: N/A. 11: None.

9) Please comment on the quality/enjoyability of the various RBS activities in which you took part outside of class (e.g. Sunday afternoon tour, Sunday night dinner, evening lectures, Bookseller Night, Video Night, Study Night, tour of the Alderman digital/electronic centers, printing demonstrations, &c.).

1: Bookseller's Night was limited, with very few sellers open. Other activities were interesting. 2: Wednesday night lecture was brilliant -- especially the last three minutes. 3: Either drop the Video Night or invest in new videos. 5: I was not able to attend these; however, I heard good reviews of the lecture. 6: N/A. 7: Enjoyable -- the Bookseller Night was a nice evening, although I was disappointed that at least two stores were closed. 8: All enjoyable. Greer Allen's lecture, unforgettable. Very interesting and amazing video on manuscript illuminations. 9: Sunday trip to Monticello, &c. was wonderful. Sunday pm tour -- N/A. Sunday pm reception/dinner -- extent to which reception was crowded detracted from my ability to meet people. Evening lectures -- both quite enjoyable. Bookseller Night -- glad of a good opportunity to see downtown. 10: Sunday's dinner is a great ice-breaker. Bookseller's Night was enjoyable, and Gilliam's shop was clearly the highlight. 11: All things were useful. I skipped Video Night. I thought Bookseller Night was all right but not great. Monday night lecture was the best of the lectures. Sunday's activities were enjoyable. 12: Need a larger space for the breaks -- possibly even some tables to sit down at. The lecture in the Rotunda would have been nicely followed with a reception in the Rotunda. 13: We did not have a Study Night. The Bookseller Night was the most enjoyable.

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

1: Definitely! 2: Yes, money's worth -- plus some. Advice: read pre-course readings. 3: Yes. 4: It's probably useful to come in with a bit of experience -- or maybe with a project of your own in mind -- to give a hook for all the new things you learn. 5: Yes. 6: Yes. A great course for an introduction to text encoding. 7: Yes I got my (institution's) money's worth. I will recommend this for my colleagues. 8: I am bringing back home more than I would have expected! 9: I very much feel I got my money's worth, and would recommend this class to any who wish to a) improve their understandings of what's out there, and/or b) improve their technical skills in the area of creating electronic texts. 10: Absolutely. I hope to come again. I will recommend RBS to my fellow scholars and to the curator of our collection. 11: Yes. No. Advice? Take it. 12: Most definitely did! 13: I will have gotten my money's worth if I can remember this information long enough to start using it.

Number of respondents: 13

There were two archivists or manuscript librarians (15%), three general librarians with some rare book duties, one rare book librarian (8%), one teacher or professor (8%), one full-time student (8%), one museum employee (but not in a museum library) (8%), one project coordinator (8%), two documentary editors (15%), and one researcher and bibliographer in a rare book archive (8%).

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