ACENET: SQL for Humanities, Social Sciences, and Librarians

Online

November 15th & 22nd, 2023

12:30pm - 3:30pm (Atlantic)

Instructors: Kaitlin Newson, Pier-Luc St-Onge

Helpers: Meghan Landry, Gurpreet Matharoo, Adnane Nasser, Ying Niu, Sarah Popov

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General Information

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".

Who: The course is for humanists, social scientists, and people working in library- and information-related roles. It uses library-related data for examples. 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.

When: November 15th & 22nd, 2023. Add to your Google Calendar.

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 dedicated to providing a positive and accessible learning environment for all. Please notify the instructors in advance of the workshop if you require any accommodations or if there is anything we can do to make this workshop more accessible to you.

Contact: Please email training@ace-net.ca for more information.

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.

Pre-workshop Survey

Post-workshop Survey

Schedule

Day 1

Before	Pre-workshop survey
12:15	Setup support (optional)
12:30	Setup Introduction to SQL Selecting and sorting Data
14:00	Break
14:10	Filtering Ordering and commenting Aggregating & calculating values
15:25	Wrap-up
15:30	END

Day 2

12:15	Setup support (optional)
12:30	Recap Joins & aliases Saving queries
14:00	Break
14:10	Database design Creating tables and modifying data Using SQL from a programming language
15:20	Wrap-up
15:30	END
After	Post-workshop survey

Setup

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.

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.

Install the videoconferencing client

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.

DB Browser for SQLite

You will need to install DB Browser for SQLite and download the data files for this workshop. Please find setup instructions in the lesson.