Learning to program with Python opens a lot of doors. You suddenly see the information around you differently. You can now analyze it, change it, and share it in new and interesting ways. This four-week course will be the first step to exploring these possibilities. Examples and data that will be used will focus on use cases that are meaningful to library workers. Each week will feature a 2-hour interactive session held over Zoom. Participants will also be given a couple of questions for homework at the end of each session in preparation for the next class. No previous program experience is expected or required.
Please note: this workshop is capped at 40 participants.
Session 1: The Basics of Python for Data Analysis: The Basics
Wednesday, May 7, 2025, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. ET
This week will focus on the core components that make up every programming language. This will allow students to get comfortable reading Python code and understanding the bigger picture of what programming really is. Variables, loops, conditionals, and all the fundamentals of Python will be covered. This includes how to use Computational Notes via the Google Colab environment instead of installing software on your computer. Participants will learn about: variables, conditional statements, loops, basic arithmetic, and Jupyter Notebooks.
Subsequent Sessions:
Session 2: The Basics of Python for Data Analysis: Looking at Data in a Structured Way
Wednesday, May 14, 2025, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. ET
After learning the basics, this session will take a distinct turn toward using Python for data analysis. Python has many built in libraries that make the process of analysis more intuitive than your typical spreadsheet program. We will explore ways in which we can load datasets and analyze them using a collection of different Python libraries. This will include text analysis and (easy) statistics. Participants will learn about: Pandas Python Library for data manipulation, basic statistics, text analysis with sPacy and Textblob libraries.
Session 3: The Basics of Python for Data Analysis: More Data Work and Introduction to Visualizations
Wednesday, May 21, 2025, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. ET
Analyzing data is one thing, taking that information and turning it into useful visualizations really helps you communicate what you have found with others. We'll build up our understanding of working with data a bit more and move onto the next step: visualizations. Python has many different ways to create charts and graphs, we'll scratch the surface on what is possible. Participants will learn about: JSON structured data, visualizations with Matplotlib and Seaborn libraries
Session 4:The Basics of Python for Data Analysis: API Work and Bringing it All Together
Wednesday, May 28 2025, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. ET
With a good understanding of the basics of data analysis in Python completed, this week will go into some more sophisticated topics. After briefly learning about retrieving data from an Application Program Interface (API) we'll go through a process of analyzing a dataset using the tools that we have seen so far. To cap it all off we will also look at how we can use Artificial Intelligence in our code by incorporating Large Language Models into our notebooks. Participants will learn: Crossref API, Large Language models with Hugging Face Python.