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Augusta University

Library Carpentry Workshop: Home

The Greenblatt Library at Augusta University was selected to host Library Carpentry virtual workshops sponsored by the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM). Workshops will focus on the development of data science and computation software.

Library Carpentry Workshop

Library Carpentry Workshop

Dates: Tuesday, January 26; Thursday, January 28; Tuesday, February 2; and Thursday, February 4 Learners To Do List:                                 
Time: 8:30AM - 12:30PM (EST)
  • Set up software applications: Bash, OpenRefine, and Git (see links below)
  • Pre-Workshop: Monday, January 25 from 9am-10am EST 
    • to answer software installation questions/issues]; separate email link will be shared upon completion of registration
Format: Online via WebEx (participates will be sent meeting invitations after registration.)
  • Complete Pre-Workshop Survey
Full Summary page
  • Familiarize yourself with Collaborative Notes (Etherpad)
Registration Form  

The Robert B. Greenblatt, M.D. Library at Augusta University was selected to host Library Carpentry virtual workshops sponsored by the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM). 

About Carpentry Workshop

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".

Git (for January 28)

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.

OpenRefine: Set-Up (for February 2)

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

Bash: Set-Up (for February 4)

Bash is a commonly-used shell that gives you the power to do simple tasks more quickly. 

To participate in this Library Carpentry lesson, you will need a working UNIX-like shell environment. Specifically we will be using Bash (Bourne Again Shell) which is standard on Linux and macOS. macOS Catalina users will have zsh (Z shell) as their default version. Even if you are a Windows user, learning Bash will open up a powerful set of tools on your personal machine, in addition to familiarizing you with the standard remote interface used on almost all servers and super computers.

Set Up Your Work Space

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 learing 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.

Workshop Information For Learners

Code of Conduct

Everyone who participates in Carpentries activities is required to conform to the Code of Conduct. How to report an incident if needed.

Collaborative Notes

During the workshop, instructors and learners will use Collaborative Notes (EtherPad) for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.

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

Pre-workshop Survey

Post-workshop Survey

Please note that it is recommended that participants use a Windows, MAC, or Linux operating laptop. Tablets, Chromebooks, smartphones, etc. are not sufficient.

Attendees can receive 16 hours MLA/CE credit for attendance.  More information to come. 

Web-Ex

Participants will be sent meeting invitations to each workshop.  Directions will be included on how to access WebEx.