Articles by author: afloyd

  • The Map, Data & GIS Library is celebrating and you should too!

    Tuesday, February 11, 2020 | By

    ArcGIS Pro logo with key

    ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online resources are now available to the Brock University community through an enterprise login and Brock credentials. Just a few steps and you can have a world of mapping capabilities at your fingertips.

    Prior to this new method, students, staff and faculty were required to contact staff of the MDGL to obtain access.  Staff always responded to each request as quickly as possible but it was certainly not instant.  These Esri products are not free tools, however this is just one of the many resources that the Brock University Library provides access to for its users. We hope everyone takes the opportunity to explore the world of GIS and all of its many possibilities!

    Follow these simple instructions to begin using ArcGIS now!

    For further assistance please contact maplib@brocku.ca.

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    Categories: Digital Scholarship Lab, Main, MDGL

  • Introduction to Compute Canada Resources Coming to Brock Library

    Monday, January 06, 2020 | By

    Compute Canada Logo

    Research often involves computational demands that exceed the resources contained within a laboratory or research institute. Some common research computing challenges include data storage, execution of large scale computational cycles, as well as access to advanced research computing (ARC) expertise. Did you know that Brock University is partnered with Compute Canada? Compute Canada deploys state-of-the-art advanced research computing (ARC) systems, storage and software solutions which helps accelerate research and innovation. Compute Canada’s vision is to “make Canada a world leader in the use of advanced computing for research, discovery and innovation.” You can access this amazing resource right here on campus!

    On January 15th from 10-11 AM the Brock University Library’s Digital Scholarship Lab (DSL) will be hosting an Introduction to the Compute Canada Federation research computing resources. This session provides an introduction to the ARC resources offered by the Compute Canada Federation with demonstrations of accessing the national storage infrastructure, executing programs on the national general purpose compute clusters as well as a tour of the documentation, support and training materials.

    This workshop is open to everyone and is being held in the DSL, located at the front of the Rankin Family Pavilion.

    To register please visit Eventbrite.

    For more information please contact dsl@brocku.ca

     

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    Categories: Digital Scholarship Lab, Main

  • ARGH Meetings Coming to Digital Scholarship Lab in 2020

    Wednesday, December 18, 2019 | By

    The Ad hoc R Group Help (ARGH) Coding Club and Support Group is coming to the Digital Scholarship Lab beginning early 2020.  The mission of ARGH is to facilitate a collaborative and supportive environment where students, post-docs, and faculty may develop data analysis, graphical, programming, and statistics skills together, using R.  Replace statistics anxiety or code fear with inspiration and motivation to learn. Visit ARGH Coding Club for more club details.

    ARGH will meet every second Monday from 12-1 pm in the Digital Scholarship Lab, located in the Rankin Family Pavilion.  Some sessions will feature presenters who will demonstrate code for a graphical, statistical, or analytical problems they have mastered or are working on.  Other meetings will be R help sessions for fellow researchers.

    Anyone is welcome to attend meetings to get assistance with R related projects, learn from others, collaborate and network.

    Drop-in’s are welcome however you can also register for meetings at ExperienceBU by following the links below:

    January 6

    January 20

    February 3

    March 2

    March 16

    March 30

    April 13

    April 27

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    Categories: Digital Scholarship Lab, Main

  • Two Day Data Carpentry Event Coming to Brock

    Friday, December 06, 2019 | By

    Coming to the Brock Digital Scholarship Lab February 2020, a two day Data Carpentry workshop!

    Data Carpentry develops the fundamental data skills needed to conduct research. Its target audience is researchers who have little to no prior computational experience, and its lessons are domain specific, building on learners’ existing knowledge to enable them to quickly apply skills learned to their own research. Participants will be encouraged to help one another and to apply what they have learned to their own research problems.

    This course is aimed at graduate students and other researchers. You do not need to have previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop.

    For more information on what will be taught and why, please see the paper “Good Enough Practices for Scientific Computing“.

    All the details about this event can be found on ExperienceBU.

    Contact: Please email dsl@brocku.ca for more information.

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    Categories: Digital Scholarship Lab, Main

  • Brock Library to Celebrate International Open Access Week

    Friday, September 27, 2019 | By

    Brock University Library will celebrate International Open Access Week on Oct. 21 with events focused on the theme of Open for Whom? Equity in Open Knowledge. All are welcome to attend these interactive and engaging learning opportunities. 

    10:30 am -12 pm, Rankin Family Pavilion Room 214 — Open Access award presentation and movie screening 

    Join us as we announce the winner of the Brock University Award for Open Access and discover who is the university’s newest champion of open scholarship! Following the award presentation, enjoy a screening and discussion of the documentary Paywall: The Business of Scholarship – a scathing indictment of how academic publishing systems creates barriers to access and innovation. Popcorn will be provided. Facilitator: Elizabeth Yates, Liaison and Scholarly Communication Librarian. 

    1-2 pm, Library Classroom A (ST228) — Introduction to Data Science with Python. Case Study: SCI-Hub close to home 

    You’ve probably heard of Python, but have you heard of Anaconda or Jupyter? This session will present the basics of data science and visualizing results using these two platforms plus two more key ingredients: Pandas  See the impact that downloading journal articles has in terms of lost revenue and impact against Open Access. Our example will look at analyzing the Niagara Region’s Sci Hub usage for 2017. Sounds interesting? No previous knowledge of coding or statistics required. All you need is your curiosity. Presenter: Tim Ribaric, Acting Head, Digital Scholarship Lab. 

    2-3 pm, Rankin Family Pavilion Room 214 — Equity in Open Scholarship: enacting academia’s core values 

    When and where to publish is often determined by our disciplinary communities. This interactive session will explore and discuss publishing’s prestige economy and its alignment with our vision for a better world. Join Giulia Forsythe, Associate Director of the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation, for this provocative conversation. 

    3-4 pm, Rankin Family Pavilion Room 214 — Accelerating Entrepreneurship with Open Access 

    Are you an entrepreneur? Have you had to find market research, articles, or other research to help you with your entrepreneurial venture? As a member of the Brock Community, you have access to library articles, data, and research that the library pays for. This is great when you are a student, but what do you do after graduation, when you don’t have library access anymore? Venture Development, Brock University Library, and the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation are leading a discussion about what challenges entrepreneurs have in finding and accessing research, and what type of research is openly available without having to have access to library-specific resources. Presenters: Giulia Forsythe, Associate Director of the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation; Linda Lowry, Liaison Librarian; Nicole Nolan, Associate University Librarian, and Cassie Price, BioLinc Co-ordinator. 

     

     

     

    Categories: Digital Scholarship Lab, Main

  • Explore Digital Scholarship This Fall

    Friday, August 30, 2019 | By

    September is here and we are very excited to welcome everyone back to Brock University for the Fall semester! We hope you are as ready to get back to learning and doing as we are.

    This Fall the Brock University Digital Scholarship Lab is offering a series of hands-on workshops, each of which focuses on a different tool or skill that will be beneficial to your learning experience and will also give you skills to add to your resumé.  Another bonus of attending these workshops, is that they will earn you credit towards your Campus-Wide Co-Curriculum Certificate. Each workshop is open to everyone.  Workshops included in this series are as follows:

    September 12 –  Introduction to OpenRefine

    September 18 – Introduction to R

    September 27 – Introduction to Data Visualization

    October 1 – ArcGIS Pro: the software, a flu outbreak and network analysis

    October 7 – Introduction to Python

    October 15-16 – Software Carpentry. This is a two day even that requires a small fee to attend.

    October 21 – Introduction to Data Science with Python. Case Study: Sci-Hub close to home

    October 30 – Python 2.0. Attendance to the first Python workshop is beneficial but is not required.

    November 6 – Introduction to R – Nov. 6

    November 11 – Introduction to the Command Line

    November 12 –  Intro. to Data Visualization – Nov. 12

    November 20 – Introduction to PowerBI

    November 26 – Introduction to Tableau

    To learn more about the series including dates, times and registration information, please visit ExperienceBU. For questions please contact dsl@brocku.ca

     

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    Categories: Digital Scholarship Lab, Main

  • How to Draw a Pig Blindfolded

    Wednesday, June 26, 2019 | By

    Line drawings of pigs

    Have you ever wondered who Sean O’Sullivan is and why Brock University has a theatre named after him?  Have you pondered over Brock Library’s namesake James A. Gibson? Or perhaps you’ve contemplated what it takes to be a bee keeper or how to draw a pig blindfolded?

    Well if you have or even if you haven’t mused over such musings, your interest must certainly be piqued!  You’re encouraged to take a peak at some of the curiosities and treasures held in Brock’s Archives and Special Collections by accessing some exceptional new online exhibits.

    Special Collections staff have been hard at work digitizing their collection to make it more accessible to you and in partnership with the Brock Digital Scholarship Lab they have been developing intriguing online exhibits to showcase their many resources.

    By visiting these online exhibits you will learn about who Sean O’Sullivan was, see wrestling trading cards from the 1930’s, learn about Niagara’s very own Alexander Hamilton, explore the Welland Canals, and view photographs of a very young St. Catharines! You can even read a letter that the 1941 Toronto Maple Leaf’s coach Hap Day wrote to St. Catharines Mayor Charles Daley under the instruction of Conn Smythe! This list of prized content truly does not do the collection justice.

    Visit the following links to explore and experience the Brock Special Collections for yourself:

    https://exhibits.library.brocku.ca/s/sean-o-sullivan/page/introduction

    https://exhibits.library.brocku.ca/s/ArchivalApps/page/ArchivalAppsWelcome

    For more information on the Archives and Special Collections visit:  https://brocku.ca/library/collections/special-collections-archives/ or drop by the 10th floor of the Schmon Tower.

    If you are interested in how these exhibits were created using the platform Omeka S and would like to learn how you can create your own exhibit, contact the Brock Digital Scholarship Lab at: dsl@brocku.ca and visit https://brocku.ca/library/dsl/.

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    Categories: Digital Scholarship Lab, Main

  • NEW ArcGIS Pro Workshop

    Thursday, June 06, 2019 | By

    ArcGIS Pro Workshop

    Interested in learning ArcGIS Pro by really digging into the software and using realistic data? This workshop, offered in partnership by the Map, Data and GIS Library and the Digital Scholarship Lab, will use a fictitious scenario about a flu outbreak in St. Catharines.  In this workshop we will geolocate each incident of the flu and determine what schools should be shut down based on their proximity to flu incidents. We will also use network analysis to calculate the nearest medical centres.  In attending this workshop, you will learn the basics of creating a visually pleasing layout and how to share your work with others.  This event is open to everyone, no previous ArcGIS experience is necessary.

    When: Thursday, June 27, 10-12 AM

    Where: Brock University, James A. Gibson Library – Classroom A (ST228)

    Register: Eventbrite

    Note: Registration for this event ends June 25th

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    Categories: Digital Scholarship Lab, Main, MDGL

  • Introduction to Data Science with Python. Case Study: Sci-Hub close to home

    Monday, May 27, 2019 | By

    Graphic showing logos for Brock DSL, Jupyter Notebooks, Anaconda and Sci-Hub

    At the Brock University Digital Scholarship Lab, we are not only exploring a wide variety of tools for data processing, analysis, and visualization, as well as digital pedagogy, we are also considering ways of interacting with these tools in unique ways as a method of demonstrating the vast possibilities digital scholarship offers.  In our upcoming workshop: Introduction to Data Science with Python, we will be teaching the basics of data science and visualizing results by investigating the Niagara Region’s Sci-Hub usage for 2017 through the case study: “Sci-Hub close to home”.

    The SCI-Hub database is famed for providing unrestricted access to a plethora of research papers that would normally be blocked by paywalls. In this workshop, attendees will see how quickly and easily using Anaconda and Jupyter Notebooks will enable them to analyze the Sci-Hub Download Log of 2017.  We will also be exploring two more ingredients; Pandas https://pandas.pydata.org/ and matplotlib https://matplotlib.org/.

    No previous knowledge of coding or statistics is required for this workshop. All you need is your curiosity.

    When: Monday, June 24th from 9:30 – 11:00 AM

    Where: James A. Gibson Library, Brock University, Classroom A (ST228)

    To register for this event, please visit: Eventbrite

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    Categories: Digital Scholarship Lab, Main

  • Digital Exhibit Brings to Life the Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald Archival Fonds

    Thursday, May 23, 2019 | By

    Black and white portrait of Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald

    The Brock University Archives and Special Collections has again partnered with the Digital Scholarship Lab to create a digital exhibit showcasing one of their unique collections.  This particular exhibit features a guided history of the life and literature of Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald, which was developed by Shauna Ribaric, Digital Resource Assistant.

    Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald (1857-1947) was raised in Rockwood, Ontario and was home schooled, unlike her brothers who attended Rockwood Academy, a boarding school owned and operated by their father William.  Eventually Wetherald attended boarding schools in both the United States and Ontario and went on to develop a real talent for writing. She was a contributing author for The Toronto Globe, writing on a variety of topics, but was also a highly respected poet. In this exhibit, Ribaric takes a very thoughtful approach to not only providing a snapshot of Wetherald’s life, but also highlights how her life influenced her writing and displays how the subject matter of Wetherald’s writing changed over time as a reflection of the changes that took place throughout her life.

    Creating a digital exhibit such as this is not a quick and easy process.  Ribaric has done a remarkable job of analyzing an entire archival collection to tell one woman’s story.  Ribaric explained the approach she took when developing her project: “I had scanned some material from this collection for the Digital Repository, but quickly found that an exhibit required a different perspective.  I did some research using some of the books in Archives and Special Collections (included in my source list) and decided to do a chronological approach to Ethelwyn’s life.  There were quite a few moments in her life that seemed to impact her writing style and I found it interesting how life influences both style and subject matter in Ethelwyn’s writing.  The items I chose had to reveal more of her life story instead of just revealing items in the collection.”

    This collection was brought to life using Omeka, a publishing platform for sharing digital collections, just one of many useful tools supported by the Digital Scholarship Lab. Ribaric and her colleagues in the Archives and Special Collections have spent quite a bit of time learning how to use this tool to share content: “It’s a great way to exhibit our diverse collections and shine a spotlight on important figures or events in our area. A completely different way for our users to experience our Archives. These kinds of exhibits enable us to reveal some of the interesting work happening in the Archives and Special Collections.  A digital exhibit can be a great way to share a glimpse of a collection, but also link the user to a finding aid that includes so much more.  Our collections also become much more accessible to the broader Niagara community who may be interested in certain historical figures/events from our area.  Digital is the direction that our users are moving and I think it’s important that we keep ourselves relevant for researchers both in the Brock community and beyond.  The digital repository has allowed us to connect with researchers internationally and I think Omeka will continue to support the effort to reach as many researchers as possible.”

    To view the Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald Fonds or other unique collections, visit the Brock Arcvhies and Special Collections located on the 10th floor of the Schmon Tower in the James A. Gibson Library. For more information visit their website.

    If you are interested in learning more about Omeka or other digital tools, please contact the Digital Scholarship Lab at dsl@brocku.ca or visit their website.

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    Categories: Digital Scholarship Lab, Featured Collections, Main

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