The Carpentries project comprises the Software Carpentry, Data Carpentry, and
Library Carpentry communities of Instructors, Trainers, Maintainers,
helpers, and supporters who share a mission to teach foundational computational and data science
skills to researchers.
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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
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.
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 committed to making this workshop
accessible to everybody.
We are dedicated to providing a positive and accessible learning environment for all.
We do not require participants to provide documentation of disabilities or disclose any unnecessary personal information.
However, we do want to help create an inclusive, accessible experience for all participants.
We encourage you to share any information that would be helpful to make your Carpentries experience accessible.
To request an accommodation for this workshop, please fill out the
accommodation request form.
If you have questions or need assistance with the accommodation form please email us.
Glosario is a multilingual glossary
for computing and data science terms. The glossary helps
learners attend workshops and use our lessons to make sense of computational and programming jargon written in English by offering it
in their native language. Translating data science terms also provides a teaching tool for Carpentries Instructors to reduce barriers
for their learners.
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.
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.
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.
Spreadsheet Software
To interact with spreadsheets, we can use LibreOffice,
Microsoft Excel,
Gnumeric,
OpenOffice.org,
or other programs.
Commands may differ a bit between programs, but general ideas for thinking about spreadsheets is the same.
For this lesson, if you don't have a spreadsheet program already,
you can use [LibreOffice](https://www.libreoffice.org).
It is a free, open source spreadsheet program.
Windows
Download the Installer:
Install LibreOffice by going to the
installation page.
The version for Windows should automatically be selected.
Click Download.
You will go to a page that asks about a donation, but you don't need to make one.
Your download should begin automatically.
Install LibreOffice:
Once the installer is downloaded, double click on it and it should install.
Mac OS
Download the Installer:
Install LibreOffice by going to the
installation page.
The version for Mac OS should automatically be selected.
Click Download.
You will go to a page that asks about a donation, but you don't need to make one.
Your download should begin automatically.
Install LibreOffice:
The file LibreOffice\_X.X.X\_MacOS\_x86-64 (whichever version of LibreOffice you have selected) should have been downloaded.
Double click on this file, and LibreOffice will be installed.
Linux
Download the Installer:
Install LibreOffice by going to the
installation page.
The version for Linux should automatically be selected.
Click Download.
You will go to a page that asks about a donation, but you don't need to make one.
Your download should begin automatically.
Install LibreOffice:
Once the installer is downloaded, double click on it and it should install.
The Bash 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.
OpenRefine
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.
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.
Python
Python is a popular language for
research computing, and great for general-purpose programming as
well. Installing all of its research packages individually can be
a bit difficult, so we recommend
Conda-forge,
an all-in-one installer.
Regardless of how you choose to install it,
please make sure you install a Python version >= 3.9
(e.g. 3.11 is fine, 3.6 is not).
We will teach Python using the Google Colaboratory environment, which uses a Jupyter Notebook,
and runs in a web browser (while logged into Google Drive, click New > More > Connect more apps, search for Google Colab, and install). For this to work you will need a reasonably
up-to-date browser. The current versions of the Chrome, Safari and
Firefox browsers are all
supported
(some older browsers, including Internet Explorer version 9
and below, are not).
Double click on the downloaded file (Something like, Minforge3-Windows-x86_64.exe)
If you get a "Windows protected your PC" pop-up from Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, click on "More info" and select "Run anyway"
Follow through the installer using all of the defaults for installation except make sure to check Add Miniforge3 to my PATH environment variable.
Download the environment file. Save the file to your Downloads folder.
(The following steps requires using the shell. If you aren't
comfortable doing the installation yourself
stop here and request help at the workshop.)
Search for the application "Miniforge Prompt", open it and run: conda env create -f .\Downloads\carpentries_environment.yml
Download the appropriate Miniforge installer for macOS
(The following steps requires using the shell. If you aren't
comfortable doing the installation yourself
stop here and request help at the workshop.)
Open a terminal window and navigate to the directory where
the executable is downloaded (e.g., cd ~/Downloads).
Type
bash Miniforge3-
and then press
Tab to autocomplete the full file name. The name of
file you just downloaded should appear.
Press Enter
(or Return depending on your keyboard).
You will follow the text-only prompts.
To move through the text, press Spacebar.
Type yes and press enter to approve the license.
Press Enter (or Return)
to approve the default location
for the files.
Type yes and press
Enter (or Return)
to prepend Miniforge to your PATH
(this makes the Miniforge distribution the default Python).
Download the environment file. Save the file to your Downloads folder.
On the terminal run: conda env create -f ~/Downloads/carpentries_environment.yml
Download the appropriate Miniforge installer for Linux
(The following steps requires using the shell. If you aren't
comfortable doing the installation yourself
stop here and request help at the workshop.)
Open a terminal window and navigate to the directory where
the executable is downloaded (e.g., `cd ~/Downloads`).
Type
bash Miniforge3-
and then press
Tab to autocomplete the full file name. The name of
file you just downloaded should appear.
Press Enter
(or Return depending on your keyboard).
You will follow the text-only prompts.
To move through the text, press Spacebar.
Type yes and press enter to approve the license.
Press Enter (or Return)
to approve the default location
for the files.
Type yes and press
Enter (or Return)
to prepend Miniforge to your PATH
(this makes the Miniforge distribution the default Python).
Download the environment file. Save the file to your Downloads folder.
Search for the application "Miniforge Prompt", open it and run: conda env create -f ~/Downloads/carpentries_environment.yml