Library Carpentry

Minitex

Online

Sept 12, 26, Oct 17, 31, and Nov 14, 2022

9:00 am - 12:00 pm (CDT/UTC -5)

Instructors: Stephen Appel, Caitlin Bakker, Kay Bjornen, Jamene Brooks-Kieffer, Cody Hennesy, Wanda Marsolek, David Naughton, Stacie Traill

Helpers: Jie Chen

General Information

Library Carpentry is made by people working in library- and information-related roles to help you:

automate repetitive, boring, error-prone tasks
create, maintain and analyze sustainable and reusable data
work effectively with IT and systems colleagues
better understand the use of software in research
and much more...

Library Carpentry introduces you to the fundamentals of computing and provides you with a platform for further self-directed learning. For more information on what we teach and why, please see our paper "Library Carpentry: software skills training for library professionals".

Who: The course is for people working in library- and information-related roles. You don't need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop.

Where: This training will take place online. The instructors will provide you with the information you will need to connect to this meeting.

Register: Register via Minitex.

When: Sept 12, 26, Oct 17, 31, and Nov 14, 2022. Add to your Google Calendar.

Requirements: Participants must have access to a computer with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) that they have administrative privileges on. They should have a few specific software packages installed (listed below).

Accessibility: We are dedicated to providing a positive and accessible learning environment for all. Please notify the instructors in advance of the workshop if you require any accommodations or if there is anything we can do to make this workshop more accessible to you.

Contact: Please email chennesy@umn.edu for more information.

Roles: To learn more about the roles at the workshop (who will be doing what), refer to our Workshop FAQ.

Code of Conduct

Everyone who participates in Carpentries activities is required to conform to the Code of Conduct. This document also outlines how to report an incident if needed.

Surveys

Please be sure to complete these surveys before and after the workshop.

Pre-workshop Survey

Post-workshop Survey

Schedule

Day 1 (Sept 12)

Before Starting	Pre-workshop survey
09:00	Library Carpentry Workshop Overview
09:30	Tidy Data for Librarians
10:30	Morning break
10:45	Tidy Data continued
12:00	END

Day 2 (Sept 26)

09:00	OpenRefine
10:30	Morning break
10:45	OpenRefine continued
12:00	END

Day 3 (Oct 17)

09:00	Working with Data: Regular Expressions
10:30	Morning break
10:45	Regex continued
12:00	END

Day 4 (Oct 31)

09:00	The Unix Shell
10:30	Morning break
10:45	Shell continued
12:00	END

Day 5 (Nov 14)

09:00	Introduction to Git
10:30	Morning break
10:45	Git continued
11:45	Post-workshop survey
12:00	END

Setup

To participate in a Library Carpentry workshop, you will need access to software as described below. In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.

We maintain a list of common issues that occur during installation as a reference for instructors that may be useful on the Configuration Problems and Solutions wiki page.

Install the videoconferencing client

If you haven't used Zoom before, go to the official website to download and install the Zoom client for your computer.

Set up your workspace

Like other Carpentries workshops, you will be learning by "coding along" with the Instructors. To do this, you will need to have both the window for the tool you will be learning about (a terminal, RStudio, your web browser, etc..) and the window for the Zoom video conference client open. In order to see both at once, we recommend using one of the following set up options:

Two monitors: If you have two monitors, plan to have the tool you are learning up on one monitor and the video conferencing software on the other.
Two devices: If you don't have two monitors, do you have another device (tablet, smartphone) with a medium to large sized screen? If so, try using the smaller device as your video conference connection and your larger device (laptop or desktop) to follow along with the tool you will be learning about.
Divide your screen: If you only have one device and one screen, practice having two windows (the video conference program and one of the tools you will be using at the workshop) open together. How can you best fit both on your screen? Will it work better for you to toggle between them using a keyboard shortcut? Try it out in advance to decide what will work best for you.

This blog post includes detailed information on how to set up your screen to follow along during the workshop.

Tidy Data

For this lesson you will need to use a spreadsheet tool such as Microsoft Excel. If you don’t have a spreadsheet program already, you can use LibreOffice. It’s a free, open source program. Find set up instructions in the Tidy Data lesson.

OpenRefine

OpenRefine is a tool to clean up and organize messy data. Please find instructions to install it and the data used in the OpenRefine lesson.

Regular Expressions

You will only need access to a web browser for this lesson. No installation or set up should be required.

The Unix Shell

Bash is a commonly-used shell that gives you the power to do simple tasks more quickly. Please find setup instructions in the lesson.

Git

Git is a version control system that lets you track who made changes to what when and has options for easily updating a shared or public version of your code on https://github.com.

Follow the instructions on the lesson to install Git on your system.

You will need an account at github.com for parts of the Git lesson. Basic GitHub accounts are free. We encourage you to create a GitHub account if you don't have one already. Please consider what personal information you'd like to reveal. For example, you may want to review these instructions for keeping your email address private provided at GitHub. You will need a supported web browser.