CarpentryConnect Johannesburg 2018 - Library Carpentry

September 3 - 5, 2018

9:00 - 16:30

Instructors: Belinda Weaver, Kayleigh Lino, Zak van Heerden, Zine Sapula

Helpers: Gabriel Salubi, Kirchner Van Deventer, Andiswa Bukula, Roo Mabuya, Miriam Pimentel

General Information


Library Carpentry is made by librarians, for librarians to help you:

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".


This Library Carpentry workshop forms part of a 5-day CarpentryConnect event that will also include two other 3-day Carpentry workshops: Data Carpentry for Social Sciences and Software Carpentry for a general audience. A third day will focus on various skill-up sessions and community of practice conversations. Day 4 & 5 is reserved for Carpentries instructor training. Please feel free to join us for the additional skill-up sessions on day 3 or the instructor training event as well.

CarpentryConnect Johannesburg 2018 is co-funded by the Rural Campuses Connection Project II (RCCPII) and the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLAR) and jointly organised by these organisations along with the Digital Humanities Organisation of Southern Africa.

Who: The course is for librarians, archivists, and other information workers. You don't need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop.

Where: Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre, Johannesburg. Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.

When: September 3 - 5, 2018. Add to your Google Calendar.

Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop 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). They are also required to abide by Library Carpentry's Code of Conduct.

Accessibility: We are committed to making this workshop accessible to everybody. The workshop organisers have checked that:

Materials will be provided in advance of the workshop and large-print handouts are available if needed by notifying the organizers in advance. If we can help making learning easier for you (e.g. sign-language interpreters, lactation facilities) please get in touch (using contact details below) and we will attempt to provide them.

Contact: Please email carpentryconnect-jhb-2018@googlegroups.com for more information.


Surveys

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

Pre-workshop Survey

Post-workshop Survey


Shedule

Day 1

9:00 Installation and Welcome
9:30 Data intro for Librarians
10:30 BREAK
11:00 Data intro for Librarians
12:30 LUNCH
13:30 Data intro for Librarians
Tidy Data for Librarians
15:00 BREAK
15:30 Tidy Data for Librarians
16:00 Wrap up
16:30 Close

Day 2

9:00 Welcome Back
9:15 OpenRefine
10:30 BREAK
11:00 OpenRefine
Unix Shell
12:30 LUNCH
13:30 Unix Shell
15:00 BREAK
15:30 Unix Shell
16:00 Wrap up
16:30 Close

Day 3

9:00 Welcome back
9:15 Unix Shell
10:30 BREAK
11:00 Unix Shell
12:30 LUNCH
13:30 Joint Session: Digital Humanities: Pedagogy and Practices at a Library Environment
15:00 BREAK
15:30 BYOD - Participants can bring questions related to topics covered in the previous 2.5 days
16:30 Close

We will use this collaborative document for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.


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Syllabus

Data Intro

  • Intro to data
  • Jargon busting
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Plain text formats and markdown
  • Naming files
  • Regular expressions
  • Reference...

The Unix Shell

  • Files and directories
  • History and tab completion
  • Counting and sorting contents in files
  • Pipes and redirection
  • Mining or searching in files
  • Reference...

Open Refine

  • Introduction to OpenRefine
  • Importing data
  • Basic functions
  • Advanced Functions
  • Enhancing your data with external services
  • Reference...

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Setup

The Bash Shell

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

Windows

Video Tutorial
  1. Download the Git for Windows installer.
  2. Run the installer and follow the steps bellow:
    1. Click on "Next".
    2. Click on "Next".
    3. Keep "Use Git from the Windows Command Prompt" selected and click on "Next". If you forgot to do this programs that you need for the workshop will not work properly. If this happens rerun the installer and select the appropriate option.
    4. Click on "Next".
    5. Keep "Checkout Windows-style, commit Unix-style line endings" selected and click on "Next".
    6. Keep "Use Windows' default console window" selected and click on "Next".
    7. Click on "Install".
    8. Click on "Finish".
  3. If your "HOME" environment variable is not set (or you don't know what this is):
    1. Open command prompt (Open Start Menu then type cmd and press [Enter])
    2. Type the following line into the command prompt window exactly as shown:

      setx HOME "%USERPROFILE%"

    3. Press [Enter], you should see SUCCESS: Specified value was saved.
    4. Quit command prompt by typing exit then pressing [Enter]

This will provide you with both Git and Bash in the Git Bash program.

Mac OS X

The default shell in all versions of Mac OS X is Bash, so no need to install anything. You access Bash from the Terminal (found in /Applications/Utilities). See the Git installation video tutorial for an example on how to open the Terminal. You may want to keep Terminal in your dock for this workshop.

Linux

The default shell is usually Bash, but if your machine is set up differently you can run it by opening a terminal and typing bash. There is no need to install anything.

Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are useful for data entry and data organization, and some subsetting and sorting of the data as well as getting an overview of the data. 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. It's 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 Version 4.4.2. 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 X

  • Download the Installer
    Install LibreOffice by going to the installation page. The version for Mac OS X should automatically be selected. Click Download Version 4.4.2. 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_4.4.2_MacOS_x86-64 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 Version 4.4.2. 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.

OpenRefine

For this lesson you will need OpenRefine and a web browser. Note: this is a Java program that runs on your machine (not in the cloud). It runs inside a web browser, but no web connection is needed.

Windows

Check that you have either the Firefox or the Chrome browser installed and set as your default browser. OpenRefine runs in your default browser. It will not run correctly in Internet Explorer.

Download software from http://openrefine.org/

Create a new directory called OpenRefine.

Unzip the downloaded file into the OpenRefine directory by right-clicking and selecting "Extract ...".

Go to your newly created OpenRefine directory.

Launch OpenRefine by clicking google-refine.exe (this will launch a command prompt window, but you can ignore that - just wait for OpenRefine to open in the browser).

If you are using a different browser, or if OpenRefine does not automatically open for you, point your browser at http://127.0.0.1:3333/ or http://localhost:3333 to use the program.

Mac

Check that you have either the Firefox or the Chrome browser installed and set as your default browser. OpenRefine runs in your default browser. It may not run correctly in Safari.

Download software from http://openrefine.org/.

Create a new directory called OpenRefine.

Unzip the downloaded file into the OpenRefine directory by double-clicking it.

Go to your newly created OpenRefine directory.

Launch OpenRefine by dragging the icon into the Applications folder.

Use Ctrl-click/Open ... to launch it.

If you are using a different browser, or if OpenRefine does not automatically open for you, point your browser at http://127.0.0.1:3333/ or http://localhost:3333 to use the program.

Linux

Check that you have either the Firefox or the Chrome browser installed and set as your default browser. OpenRefine runs in your default browser.

Download software from http://openrefine.org/.

Make a directory called OpenRefine.

Unzip the downloaded file into the OpenRefine directory.

Go to your newly created OpenRefine directory.

Launch OpenRefine by entering ./refine into the terminal within the OpenRefine directory.

If you are using a different browser, or if OpenRefine does not automatically open for you, point your browser at http://127.0.0.1:3333/ or http://localhost:3333 to use the program.

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.