From Software Skills to Data Management Plans, Add to Your Research Toolkit with UK Libraries’ Digital Scholarship & Data Workshops

This fall, dial up to your full digital potential with an exciting slate of UK Libraries’ Digital Scholarship & Data Workshops & Events.

Master a new software, discover the ins and outs of text mining, demystify your data management plan, and explore the many opportunities to take your digital or data-intensive scholarship to the next level. 

Offered by the digital scholarship and data librarians at UK Libraries’ newest space, The Stacks: Digital Scholarship Center, these workshops and events begin on Tuesday, September 3 and last throughout the fall semester.

Some events are held virtually on Zoom, and some are held in-person in The Stacks: find details for each below.

The Fall 2024 schedule includes:

• An in-depth workshop series devoted to the data analysis and visualization software R and RStudio 
• An in-person workshop series exploring the many opportunities to increase student engagement with CreateUK
• Virtual and in-person workshops for tools, resources, and data management best practices
• Recurring open office hours for data-related questions and assistance

The workshops will help students, faculty, and researchers improve and expand their capacities to use digital tools in their work and scholarship, with broad appeal to all data-intensive disciplines. 

The workshops are free to attend and open to all UK students, faculty, and staff. Registration is required to attend. 

Find more details and register for the workshops, and contact TheStacks@uky.edu with any questions.
 

R Workshop Series

The R Workshop Series will be held in-person in the Presentation Space in The Stacks. The first installment of the series will introduce participants to the basics of R and RStudio, while the second and third installments will focus on more advanced features of cleaning data and creating data visualizations.

Three identical sessions will be held for each installment.

Registration is required to participate in the workshops. Find registration links below for each workshop date.

• Intro to R Workshop
  • Join us for the first installment of the R Workshop Series, where you will learn the basics of R and RStudio. You will learn how to install and run packages, do basic arithmetic, create and name objects, work with functions, create and subset vectors, and much more. No previous experience with R or coding needed to participate in this workshop.
  • Session 1
    • Monday, September 9, 2024  
    • 10am – 11:30am
    • The Stacks Presentation Space
    • Register here.
  • Session 2
    • Tuesday, September 17
    • 10am – 11:30am
    • The Stacks Presentation Space
    • Register here.
  • Session 3
    • Thursday, September 26
    • 2pm – 3:30pm
    • The Stacks Presentation Space
    • Register here.
       
• Data Cleaning in R: Welcome to the Tidyverse
  • Join us for the second installment of the R Workshop Series, where the focus will be on cleaning data in R. You will learn how to import data, extract information from data frames/tibbles, subset data, how to use factors, format dates, and more. Participation in the first installment of the R Workshop Series, Intro to R, or a working knowledge of R/RStudio is highly recommended.
  • Session 1
    • Monday, October 7
    • 10am – 12pm
    • The Stacks Presentation Space
    • Register here.
  • Session 2
    • Tuesday, October 15
    • 10am – 12pm
    • The Stacks Presentation Space
    • Register here.
  • Session 3
    • Thursday, October 31
    • 2pm – 4pm
    • The Stacks Presentation Space
    • Register here.
       
• Data Visualizations with ggplot2 in R
  • Join us for the final installment of the R Workshop Series, where the focus will be on creating data visualizations in R. Learn how to build graphics using the ggplot2 package in R. Participation in the first installment of the R Workshop Series, Intro to R, or a working knowledge of R/RStudio is highly recommended.
  • Session 1
    • Monday, November 4
    • 10am – 11:30am
    • The Stacks Presentation Space
    • Register here.
  • Session 2
    • Tuesday, November 12
    • 10am – 11:30am
    • The Stacks Presentation Space
    • Register here.
  • Session 3
    • Thursday, November 21
    • 2pm – 3:30pm
    • The Stacks Presentation Space
    • Register here.
       

Digital Lab Series

The Digital Lab Series will introduce teachers and students to tools and applications for building and showcasing digital projects through CreateUK, a web-hosting service managed by UK Libraries.

• Digital Lab Series: Introduction to CreateUK
  • Thursday, September 19, 2024
  • 1pm – 1:45pm
  • Whether you are teaching or learning online, in person, or a little of both, CreateUK is a web-hosting service managed by UK Libraries that can increase student engagement beyond Canvas. With built-in popular, open-source applications such as WordPress, Omeka, Scalar, and many more, CreateUK offers faculty and students a platform to connect with course content and projects in new and meaningful ways. Join us for a live, step-by-step walkthrough of browsing, installing, and accessing applications on CreateUK. After this webinar, you will know how to get started and continue working on your CreateUK projects. There will be time for questions and answers.
  • Held in-person in The Stacks Presentation Space.
  • Find more information and register.
     
• Digital Lab Series: CreateUK & WordPress
  • Thursday, October 3, 2024
  • 1pm – 2pm
  • You have a CreateUK account and you know you want to use WordPress for your web project, and perhaps you have already installed it. But now what? Join us for a live, step-by-step walkthrough of creating and customizing your WordPress website. We will review installing and customizing a theme, creating pages and posts, adding users, and installing plugins. Bring your questions!  There will be time to address any specific questions you may have about your WordPress website.
  • Held in-person in The Stacks Presentation Space.
  • Find more information and register.
     
• Digital Lab Series: CreateUK & Omeka
  • Thursday, October 17, 2024
  • 1pm – 2pm
  • You have a CreateUK account and would like to build a digital exhibit? Join us for a live, step-by-step walkthrough of how to begin creating your digital exhibit using Omeka. We will review how to apply a theme, create a menu, and build an exhibit. Bring your questions! There will be time to address any specific questions you may have about an Omeka exhibit.
  • Held in-person in The Stacks Presentation Space.
  • Find more information and register.
     

Tools, Resources, & Best Practices

These virtual and in-person workshops will introduce a broad assortment of available tools and resources and help expand and improve digital scholarship competencies.

• Data Disasters: How to Avoid Horror Stories in Data Management
  • Wednesday, October 23, 2024
  • 12pm – 1pm
  • If not managed well, research data can go wrong in any number of ways, and the consequences range from minor inconveniences to retractions of published findings. Fortunately, you can protect yourself from data disasters large and small using good data management techniques. This presentation will cover some all-too-common data horror stories that researchers experience and how you can guard against them.
  • Held virtually on Zoom. 
  • Find more information and register.
     
• Leveraging the Power of Google Earth Pro for Instructors
  • Friday, October 25, 2024
  • 11am – 12pm
  • Google Earth Pro offers basic mapmaking and cartographic tools without the large learning curve associated with more advanced geospatial software. This workshop will cover simple spatial data creation, spatial analysis, and basic principles of cartography with a focus on how the tool could be incorporated into the classroom.
  • Held in-person in The Stacks Presentation Space.
  • Find more information and register.
     
• Tools for Text Mining Books from the HathiTrust Digital Library
  • Monday, November 4, 2024
  • 1pm – 2pm
  • What can we learn from 18+ million digitized books? That’s the size of the collection made available to members of the HathiTrust Digital Library, including researchers at the University of Kentucky. This session will introduce participants to the tools they can use to access and analyze the text of books of their choosing and begin surfacing interesting patterns and meaningful information.
  • Held in-person in The Stacks Presentation Space.
  • Find more information and register.
     
• Digital Project Planning: An Introduction
  • Friday, November 1, 2024
  • 1pm – 2:30pm
  • Are you a student who would like to create a digital project, but you’re not sure how to get started? Have you already started your digital project but the next steps are not clear? Are you a faculty member teaching a course that requires your students to create a digital project? Attend this workshop to learn hands-on, practical steps to plan and develop your project. In addition to creating a personalized planning document, you will also have the opportunity to learn about, discuss, and review a variety of digital tools and criteria to select the most appropriate tool(s) for your project.
  • Held in-person in The Stacks Presentation Space.
  • Find more information and register.
     

Data & Donuts Office Hours

All UK Libraries users are invited to Data & Donuts Office Hours, held from 8am–11am on the first and third Thursdays of the month from September–November in The Stacks Digital Workspace. Led by Data Applications Librarian Diane Parr, the informal sessions provide an opportunity for students, faculty, and researchers to find help with a wide variety of data needs, from data wrangling and analysis to data visualizations. 

In the mood for more? 

Visit our Research Workshops & Tutorials page to find all the opportunities to improve your research skills with UK Libraries, including the Fall 2024 Research Workshop Series presented by the Medical Center Library.