Celebrate International Love Data Week With the University Libraries

International Love Data Week is set for Feb. 14-18, and the University Libraries are celebrating with a slate of webinars and instruction sessions hosted by data librarian Lora Lennertz. All current and future sessions can be viewed on the Software and Data Instruction Events Calendar. 

Introduction to UNIX  
1-4 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 15

The Unix shell has been around longer than most of its users have been alive. It has survived so long because it's a power tool that allows people to do complex things with just a few keystrokes. More importantly, it helps them combine existing programs in new ways and automate repetitive tasks so they aren't typing the same things over and over again. Use of the shell is fundamental to using a wide range of other powerful tools and computing resources, including "high-performance computing" supercomputers. This session will start participants on a path towards using these resources effectively. Register. 

Data: Was it Love at First Sight?  
12-1 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 17
MULN 439

Join the libraries for this webinar sponsored by the host of International Love Data Week, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research.

More than half of American adults believe in love at first sight. Whether your love is for data or for something more traditional, join us for a light-hearted look at what data in ICPSR's collection can tell us about love. We will explore data about the love we have for each other (friendship, sexual, romantic, familial), for our pets and hobbies, even for selected foods. The goal of the session is to have a bit of fun while exploring the breadth of data available through ICPSR. Register. 

Programming with Python   
1-4 p.m., Monday, Feb. 21

The best way to learn how to program is to do something useful, so this introduction to Python is built around a common scientific task: data analysis. While this is an introduction to Python, its real purpose is to introduce the single most important idea in programming: how to solve problems by building functions. A goal is to teach people a little about the mechanics of manipulating data with lists and file I/O so that their functions can do things they actually care about. This session is an introduction to navigating Python and performing basic operations. Register.