University of Houston Libraries will offer a series of workshops for faculty, researchers, and students to hone their skills on a variety of research tools.

Each workshop will be hands-on to get participants quickly familiar with the tools for use in their own research. All workshops will be held in the MD Anderson Library.

Finding Data: February 12, 1-2:30 p.m., room 10F
Participants will be introduced to commonly-used library data sources and open data portals; learn tips for finding data, and discuss how to evaluate the quality of data sources.

Introduction to Tableau: February 19, 1-2:30 p.m., room 10F
Participants will use Tableau Public to create interactive data visualizations. The workshop will cover an overview of the program and provide hands-on experience creating basic charts and maps, as well as creating interactive web-based visualization dashboards; and publishing to the Tableau Public web server.

Tableau Intermediate: February 26, 1-2:30 p.m., room 10F
Participants will use more advanced features in Tableau to manage data, such as join, union and edit data; and use calculations and parameters to make views more interactive. The workshop will cover analytics to help spot trends and forecast data. Taking Introduction to Tableau prior to this workshop is strongly encouraged.

Data Cleaning with OpenRefine: February 28, 1-2:30 p.m., room 106R
OpenRefine (formerly Google Refine) is a tool for working with semi-structured datasets. It allows you to explore data, easily find facet patterns within data, and enable simple detection of data inconsistencies. It also offers quick clean-up and transformation options. In this workshop, participants will learn how to perform common data cleaning functions and use GREL (Google Refine Expression Language) for more advanced cleaning needs.

Online Mapping with ArcGIS Online: March 5, 1-2:30 p.m., room 106R
Participants will learn basic terminologies for geographic information system (GIS) mapping and identify opportunities to apply GIS in your work; and how to use ArcGIS online to create a map with lines, points, and polygons. We will use real data to create a Houston hurricane evacuation map and see where City of Houston’s non-emergency service calls were received to report flooding during Hurricane Harvey. We will also add demographic data to the map and identify areas that need more assistance during the evacuation.

Introduction to ArcMap: March 7, 1-2:30 p.m., room 106R
This workshop will provide an overview of how ArcGIS software can help you analyze or visualize digital data that has a locational component. Participants will become familiar with the ArcGIS interface, create a simple map, edit the layout, and export the map into different formats. It will also introduce learning resources to explore more GIS.

Introduction to Tableau, March 21, 10-11:30 a.m., room 10F
Participants will use Tableau Public to create interactive data visualizations. The workshop will cover an overview of the program and provide hands-on experience creating basic charts and maps, as well as creating interactive web-based visualization dashboards; and publishing to the Tableau Public web server.

Tableau Intermediate: March 28, 10-11:30 a.m., room 10F
Participants will use more advanced features in Tableau to manage data, such as join, union and edit data; and use calculations and parameters to make views more interactive. The workshop will cover analytics to help spot trends and forecast data. Taking Introduction to Tableau prior to this workshop is strongly encouraged.

Introduction to ArcMap: April 4, 1-2:30 p.m., room 106R
This workshop will provide an overview of how ArcGIS software can help you analyze or visualize digital data that has a locational component. Participants will become familiar with the ArcGIS interface, create a simple map, edit the layout, and export the map into different formats. It will also introduce learning resources to explore more GIS.

Mapping Census Data: April 9, 1-2:30 p.m., room 106R
Participants will learn how to retrieve census data and join the data with census TIGER shapefiles, a public domain data source which has many geographic features. Using ArcMap, participants will create choropleth maps, thematic maps in which areas are shaded in proportion to the measurement of the statistical variable being displayed on the map, such as population density or per-capita income. Taking Introduction to ArcMap prior to this workshop is strongly encouraged.

Geocoding and Mapping Location Data: April 11, 1-2:30 p.m., room 106R
Participants will learn a few ways to geocode, the process of converting addresses (like a street address) into geographic coordinates (like latitude and longitude); and learn how to retrieve location data from library databases, geocode them, and place them on the map. Taking Introduction to ArcMap prior to this workshop is strongly encouraged.