New Data Services Workshops Announced for Spring 2020
Digital Scholarship is happy to announce a series of 6 data-related workshops throughout Spring 2020. As the 2020 census will be launched on April 1st, our workshops are designed to increase awareness and understanding of the importance of the census, building data skills of using, managing and visualizing census data and other data sources. We hope you can join us! All events will be held in the Digital Studio (O’Neill Library 205). Please register for each event using the corresponding link.
Do I have to have experience with data analysis or visualization to attend a Data Services workshop session?
Not really. Most of our data workshops are created for patrons with entry- or intermediate-level of data knowledge or skills. Workshops will start from the basics and use specific examples to help you understand the concepts quickly. Moreover, hands-on experiences are embedded in every workshop, which will allow attendees to practice on their own laptops with the instructors to obtain better learning experiences. Please bring your own laptop and join us in the Digital studio!
What workshop are you most excited to lead this semester?
We are excited about all of the workshops! What we’re most excited about is the theme, the 2020 Census. As the census only comes out once every 10 years, this is a rare opportunity to work with current data regarding America’s population. We believe that the workshop on scraping data from Twitter will draw great interest on campus as well.
What kind of tools will be highlighted in the workshops?
One thing that the Digital Scholarship team at O’Neill Library observed is the gap in providing hands-on instructions for the most commonly used data processing tool on campus, e.g., Excel. In order to better serve the needs of our patrons, especially our students, we will provide Excel focused workshops with various data wrangling skills every semester. Besides Excel, we will also introduce a widely used data visualization tool — Tableau, the visualization workshop will introduce the participants how to use Tableau techniques to tell stories with data and better communicate their research.
How does this work connect to the mission of the library to focus on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion?
Our workshops are designed for patrons from all disciplines. By incorporating a diverse array of topics with examples drawn from different fields, including knowledge of identifying data/statistics sources, text scraping and analysis, data management, and data visualization, we are devoted to providing data services and creating a learning environment that fosters equity, diversity and inclusion.
