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Research Data Management Basics
Good data management practices can help ensure that your research data are findable, accessible, and re-usable long-term. In this session, learn useful tips to help you manage your data. Topics include best practices for file management, documentation, storage, preservation, and more. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14830817.
Tuesday, September 2, 2025, 2:50 PM – 4:05 PM.
See event description for more details.
Text Analysis for Beginners
Do you have a textual data for qualitative analysis! This session is perfect for anyone looking to transform unstructured text data into meaningful insights.
Key topics include:
Introduction to text analysis: What is it and why it matters?
, Reading and preprocessing text: Cleaning and preparing data for analysis.
, Extracting insights like word frequency and word count.
, Tools and techniques: Overview of Python libraries (e.g. NLTK) and other user-friendly platforms
, Hands-on work with actual text data in the class using python notebooks
,
By the end of the workshop, you’ll have a foundational understanding of text mining concepts and practical experience working with basic tools and techniques. Whether you’re a student, researcher, or professional, this workshop will equip you with the skills to start your text analysis journey!
Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14866073.
Thursday, September 4, 2025, 2:20 PM – 3:20 PM.
See event description for more details.
Extracting Data from Websites Using APIs
Unlock the power of APIs to efficiently extract and utilize data from websites! This hands-on workshop is designed for beginners and intermediate learners who want to gain practical skills in API integration. Participants will learn the fundamentals of APIs, how to access and interpret API documentation, and techniques for extracting structured data for analysis. We will cover the following topics:
What is an API and its role in data extraction?
, How to make requests and handle responses?
, What are API keys ?
, How to parse the JSON and other data formats?
, New York Times API example for extracting data
,
By the end of this workshop, you’ll have the basic understanding of APIs for tasks like gathering data for research and analysis.
Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14866146.
Friday, September 5, 2025, 10:10 AM – 11:10 AM.
See event description for more details.
Introduction to Git and GitHub
Git is a free version control system that programmers and developers use to track and share code. GitHub is a free website that simplifies the findability, accessibility, and reusability of program code, in addition to providing a web browser interface to the version control commands. This workshop will take you from being a novice to being highly proficient at using Git and GitHub. You will learn how to collaborate on projects effectively with GitHub, build a solid foundation in Git, and master advanced version control skills. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14882523.
Monday, September 8, 2025, 2:20 PM – 3:45 PM.
See event description for more details.
Data Visualization - The Essentials - History, Concepts, and Principles
Most of us live in a visual world. As technologies have developed, more of our world has become more visual. This is no less true in our learning, teaching, and research world as it is in our personal living world. Data visualization, the use of charts, graphs, plots, maps, etc. to explain and explore data, has now become an essential literacy as well as an expected application skill in growing areas of academia and work. This learning session provides a foundation for developing a fundamental understanding of data visualization. We will discuss five essentials:
What data visualization is and why it's important
, Where data visualization came from and how continues to evolve
, Some of the science explaining why and how data visualization works
, Foundational principles that help to define effective and ineffective data visualizations
, Crucial ethical and accessibility issues related to data visualization use
,
Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14763503.
Tuesday, September 9, 2025, 11:40 AM – 12:55 PM.
See event description for more details.
Silent Book Club at Thomas Cooper Library
Love reading and talking about books? Come join us! Select a book from our browsing collection or bring your own. We'll read in silence, then end with optional discussion time. Like the book you started? Check it out and take it with you!
Admission Cost: Free.
Wednesday, September 10, 2025, 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM.
Explore Creating a Website for Your Research
Technology has allowed for scholarship to be created and shared in new and exciting ways. Consider a whole new audience for your research. In this workshop, you’ll learn the possibilities when you decide to share your research online. We will discuss possible web hosting options and tools that can help bring your research to life on the web. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14857335.
Wednesday, September 10, 2025, 1:10 PM – 2:00 PM.
See event description for more details.
Introduction to Publishing in Scholarly Journals
In this session, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of the academic publishing process. While reviewing the publishing cycle, you’ll learn to prepare your manuscript and select a high impact, accessible journal, how to navigate the peer review process and, finally, how you can promote and share your scholarship.
Register online.
Wednesday, September 10, 2025, 2:20 PM – 3:10 PM.
See event description for more details.
Fall Literary Festival 2025 with C.M. Kushins
Great writers, readers and friends will gather for two author visits in September for the University of South Carolina Fall Literary Festival.
Wednesday, September 10, 2025 - C.M. Kushins,
Reading/discussion, Q&A, book signing,
C. M. Kushins has been a freelance journalist for over twenty years. His work has appeared in High Times and The Daily Beast, among others. He is the author of the acclaimed biographies Nothing's Bad Luck: The Lives of Warren Zevon, Beast: John Bonham and the Rise of Led Zeppelin, and, most recently, Cooler Than Cool: The Life and Work of Elmore Leonard.
Admission Cost: Free.
Wednesday, September 10, 2025, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
Hollings Special Collections Library Program Room.
Explore Creating a Website for Your Research
Technology has allowed for scholarship to be created and shared in new and exciting ways. Consider a whole new audience for your research. In this workshop, you’ll learn the possibilities when you decide to share your research online. We will discuss possible web hosting options and tools that can help bring your research to life on the web. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14857350.
Thursday, September 11, 2025, 10:00 AM – 11:20 AM.
See event description for more details.
Partnering with South Caroliniana Library to Improve Student's Primary Source Literacy
Join instruction and outreach librarian Brittany Champion, MLS, for "Partnering with South Caroliniana Library to Improve Students' Primary Source Literacy." Learn how Brittany uses the varied historical and contemporary collections of South Carolina through library instruction to improve student's primary source literacy. This session is ideal for faculty across all disciplines who want to explore how to broaden their student's self-efficacy in research by fostering the use of primary and secondary resources and strengthening connection with library professionals.
Admission Cost: Free.
Thursday, September 11, 2025, 10:05 AM – 11:20 AM.
South Caroliniana Library 910 Sumter Street.
The Good, the Bad & the Naked of USC History: Historic Horseshoe History Tour
Have you ever been strolling along the Historic Horseshoe bricks and found yourself wondering about the history of Carolina and its traditions? Well, you're in luck! Meet University Archivist Elizabeth West in front of the Caroliniana for a Horseshoe history tour. Learn the origins of the Tiger Burn and what national record Gamecock students set in 1974! Free and open to the public.
Admission Cost: Free.
Thursday, September 11, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
South Caroliniana Library 910 Sumter Street.
Data Visualization - The Essentials - Application Principles and Processes
Data visualization literacy is already an essential knowledge requirement for our academic environment as well as generally. Data visualization application knowledge and skills are becoming increasingly valuable and even required in more and more of the academic and work world. To create and use data visualizations in our academic and work worlds we first must answer a couple of questions. We then need some basic understanding of how the predominant data visualization tools function. In this learning session we will consider and discuss five essentials for applying data visualization:
How do we determine the appropriate data visualization type(s) to use?
, How do we decide which data visualization tool or product to use?
, How do the three predominant data visualization tools (Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau) compare in terms of usage?
, Why, when, and how might we use programming languages such as R and Python for creating data visualizations?
, How might we use tools such as ArcGIS and…
Thursday, September 11, 2025, 1:15 PM – 2:30 PM.
See event description for more details.
Generative AI - The Essentials - GenAI is Different!
Although it has only been three years since the introduction of ChatGPT, most of us have heard more than a little about artificial intelligence (AI) and more specifically generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). It seems everything in our current world has some connection to AI and/or GenAI. At the same time, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding about GenAI; what it is, how it works, if we should use it, how we can use it effectively, etc. This session will discuss five essentials regarding GenAI:
GenAI is fundamentally different than traditional information and information search systems with which we are familiar
, Our interactions with GenAI need to be different than our interactions with traditional information systems in order to be effective
, Our uses and expectations of GenAI systems and tools need to be different than how we have used and what we have expected from our traditional systems
, We are still in the early stages of development, evolution, application, and adoption of…
Monday, September 15, 2025, 10:50 AM – 11:40 AM.
See event description for more details.
Explore Creating a Website for Your Research
Technology has allowed for scholarship to be created and shared in new and exciting ways. Consider a whole new audience for your research. In this workshop, you’ll learn the possibilities when you decide to share your research online. We will discuss possible web hosting options and tools that can help bring your research to life on the web.
Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14857370.
Tuesday, September 16, 2025, 1:15 PM – 2:30 PM.
See event description for more details.
Generative AI - The Essentials - Conversations with GenAI
While we don't want to anthropomorphize GenAI any more than it already is, there is something to be said for communicating with GenAI tools in a more human conversational manner. After all, conversational AI is a key component in most GenAI tools and the way they are designed to work is based on machine learning and machine communication being more like how we believe humans learn and communicate. Just as there are skills and techniques one can learn to communicate more effectively with our fellow humans, there are also skills and techniques one can learn and apply to communicating and conversing with GenAI tools. The popular technical term for this is prompt engineering. During this session we will consider five essentials related to communicating effectively with GenAI tools:
GenAI tools are designed to use conversational AI to both understand our inquiries and respond in an understandable manner
, There is both a skill and an art to effectively communicating with GenAI tools
, GenAI tools are…
Wednesday, September 17, 2025, 2:20 PM – 3:10 PM.
See event description for more details.
Introduction to Publishing in Scholarly Journals
In this session, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of the academic publishing process. While reviewing the publishing cycle, you’ll learn to prepare your manuscript and select a high impact, accessible journal, how to navigate the peer review process and, finally, how you can promote and share your scholarship.
Register online.
Thursday, September 18, 2025, 11:40 AM – 12:30 PM.
See event description for more details.
Introduction to Monograph Publishing
This multi-disciplinary workshop will provide an overview of standard publishing processes with a focus on best practices for graduate students who are considering the publication of a first scholarly monograph. The publishing process will be broken down into parts and guidance will be offered to increase chances of success at each stage. Common misconceptions will be addressed, and routine faux pas will be highlighted so as give advantage to SHARPGrads in the academic literary marketplace. Handouts/take-away files will be distributed.
Michael J. McGandy is director of University of South Carolina Press. Prior to arriving at USC, he worked at Cornell University Press, where he was Senior Editor and Editorial Director of the Three Hills imprint. He has also worked in commercial publishing at Macmillan Library Reference/Gale Group, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, and W. W. Norton & Company.
Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14764274.
Thursday, September 18, 2025, 1:15 PM – 2:45 PM.
See event description for more details.
University of South Carolina's Fall Literary Festival with Kaveh Akbar
Great writers, readers and friends will gather for two author visits in September for the University of South Carolina Fall Literary Festival.
Thursday, September 18, 2025 - Kaveh Akbar,
Reading/discussion, Q&A, book signing,
Kaveh Akbar is the New York Times bestselling author of the novel Martyr!—a finalist for the National Book Award and one of the New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year—and two books of poetry: Pilgrim Bell and Calling a Wolf a Wolf. He is also editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 110 Poets on the Divine and, with Paige Lewis, co-editor of Another Last Call: Poems on Addiction and Deliverance. His writing appears in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Paris Review, New Republic, GQ, The Atlantic, Best American Poetry, Best American Sportswriting, and elsewhere. Since 2020, he has served as poetry editor for The Nation. Born in Tehran, Iran, he is the Roy J. Carver Professor of English at the University of Iowa. His work has been translated into over thirty languages.
Admission Cost: Free.
Thursday, September 18, 2025, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
Hollings Special Collections Library Program Room.
Generative AI - The Essentials - Building a Basic Toolbox
We began with ChatGPT as THE GenAI tool, and for many, that may still be the only GenAI product they have ever used. In the time since its inception, however, many other GenAI products and tools have been developed. As with most tools and technologies, rarely is there one that does everything we need or want. During this session, we will build a GenAI toolbox that will be useful in our academic and general endeavors. Using the research lifecycle as a functional guide, we will consider five essential areas and mention a tool or tools relevant to those areas:
General purpose GenAI chatbots
, GenAI search tools
, Citation-mapping GenAI tools
, Data analysis/visualization GenAI tools
, GenAI writing assistants
,
We will also briefly mention non-text (image, video, sound) GenAI products.
Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14773511.
Friday, September 19, 2025, 10:50 AM – 11:40 AM.
See event description for more details.
Understanding Copyright and Publication Agreements: Safeguard your Research
In the publishing world, transferring copyright is often a necessary step. Recent partnerships between scholarly publishers and technology companies emphasize the importance of understanding your publishing agreements. Publishing agreements impact how your work is utilized: it may be used to train AI models, or there may be restrictions on sharing your research with colleagues, students, and the public.
This one-hour workshop will provide you with strategies for managing your copyright. You will learn how to carefully evaluate publication agreements, negotiate your rights, and select publishers whose policies meet your requirements. Join us to understand how you can control the use and dissemination of your scholarship.
Register online.
Friday, September 19, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
See event description for more details.
Graduate Student Research Toolbox
Learn about the library resources and services that are critical for success in graduate research. Topics to be covered include citation management tools, locating dissertations and theses, interlibrary loan, and research support services.
Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14959930.
Tuesday, September 23, 2025, 2:50 PM – 3:35 PM.
See event description for more details.
Creating a Website for Your Research
Technology has allowed for scholarship to be created and shared in new and exciting ways. Consider a whole new audience for your research. In this workshop, you’ll learn the possibilities when you decide to share your research online. We will discuss possible web hosting options and tools that can help bring your research to life on the web.
Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14857375.
Wednesday, September 24, 2025, 12:00 PM – 12:50 PM.
See event description for more details.
Introduction to Python Using Anaconda
This workshop will introduce users to the Python programming language. Python is an easy-to-learn, extensible, high-level programming language which has the simplicity and readability of its code as its core design principles. As a result, Python is one of the most widely used programming languages for scientific data processing and many other applications. Python libraries and applications are available for a wide range of applications, including natural language processing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning.
Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14882593.
Thursday, September 25, 2025, 11:40 AM – 12:55 PM.
See event description for more details.
Research Data Management Basics
Good data management practices can help ensure that your research data are findable, accessible, and re-usable long-term. In this session, learn useful tips to help you manage your data. Topics include best practices for file management, documentation, storage, preservation, and more. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14830819.
Thursday, September 25, 2025, 11:40 AM – 12:55 PM.
See event description for more details.
Embracing Public Scholarship: Connecting Your Research and the Public
Discover how to bridge the gap between academic research and public engagement in this workshop. Your work has the potential to make a meaningful impact beyond traditional academia. In this session, we’ll explore strategies, best practices, and examples to help you become an effective public scholar. Join in exploring how your scholarly expertise can contribute to public discourse and create positive change.
Register online.
Tuesday, September 30, 2025, 11:40 AM – 12:40 PM.
See event description for more details.
Introduction to MATLAB
MATLAB is a feature-rich programming language for scientific and numerical data processing for which USC has a university-wide site license. MATLAB also has many application toolkits available for use in diverse fields of research. This workshop will introduce users to the MATLAB programming language, with a focus on reading spreadsheet data into MATLAB, processing the data using matrix operations, writing the processed data to a spreadsheet, and visualizing the data. A MATLAB license and an installed version of MATLAB are recommended but not required to attend this workshop.
Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14720362.
Tuesday, September 30, 2025, 2:50 PM – 4:05 PM.
See event description for more details.
Research Data Management Basics
Good data management practices can help ensure that your research data are findable, accessible, and re-usable long-term. In this session, learn useful tips to help you manage your data. Topics include best practices for file management, documentation, storage, preservation, and more. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14830822.
Wednesday, October 1, 2025, 9:40 AM – 10:30 AM.
See event description for more details.
Text Analysis for Beginners
Do you have a textual data for qualitative analysis! This session is perfect for anyone looking to transform unstructured text data into meaningful insights.
Key topics include:
Introduction to text analysis: What is it and why it matters?
, Reading and preprocessing text: Cleaning and preparing data for analysis.
, Extracting insights like word frequency and word count.
, Tools and techniques: Overview of Python libraries (e.g. NLTK) and other user-friendly platforms
, Hands-on work with real text and python notebook
,
By the end of the workshop, you’ll have a foundational understanding of text mining concepts and practical experience working with basic tools and techniques. Whether you’re a student, researcher, or professional, this workshop will equip you with the skills to start your text analysis journey!
Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14866294.
Thursday, October 2, 2025, 2:20 PM – 3:20 PM.
See event description for more details.
University of South Carolina Trivia Night
Think you know the most about USC?
Want to hold that knowledge over your friend's heads? Prove it!
Join us at the South Caroliniana Library for USC trivia. All of the questions will be based off of our own University Archivist’s trivia book!
Enjoy some free food while you and your team answer some questions all about USC. Oh, and did we mention it’s totally free?
Admission Cost: Free.
Thursday, October 2, 2025, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM.
South Caroliniana Library 910 Sumter Street.
Extracting Data From Websites Using APIs
Unlock the power of APIs to efficiently extract and utilize data from websites! This hands-on workshop is designed for beginners and intermediate learners who want to gain practical skills in API integration. Participants will learn the fundamentals of APIs, how to access and interpret API documentation, and techniques for extracting structured data for analysis. We will cover the following topics:
What is an API and its role in data extraction?
, How to make requests and handle responses?
, What are API keys ?
, How to parse the JSON and other data formats?
, New York Times API example for extracting data
,
By the end of this workshop, you’ll have the basic understanding of APIs for tasks like gathering data for research and analysis.
Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14866147.
Friday, October 3, 2025, 10:10 AM – 11:10 AM.
See event description for more details.
Data Visualization - The Essentials - History, Concepts, and Principles
Most of us live in a visual world. As technologies have developed, more of our world has become more visual. This is no less true in our learning, teaching, and research world as it is in our personal living world. Data visualization, the use of charts, graphs, plots, maps, etc. to explain and explore data, has now become an essential literacy as well as an expected application skill in growing areas of academia and work. This learning session provides a foundation for developing a fundamental understanding of data visualization. We will discuss five essentials:
What data visualization is and why it's important
, Where data visualization came from and how continues to evolve
, Some of the science explaining why and how data visualization works
, Foundational principles that help to define effective and ineffective data visualizations
, Crucial ethical and accessibility issues related to data visualization use
,
Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14770898.
Monday, October 6, 2025, 10:50 AM – 11:50 AM.
See event description for more details.
Staying Scholarly: Navigating Predatory Publishing, Citation Manipulation, and Research Fraud
It’s essential to know how to identify and avoid bad research and publishing practices. This virtual workshop equips attendees with the tools to recognize and steer clear of predatory publishers and conferences, understand how citation manipulation (including citation cartels and inflated profiles on platforms like Google Scholar) can distort scholarly impact, and spot warning signs of fraudulent research. Through real-world examples and practical strategies, participants will learn how to safeguard their scholarly integrity and make informed decisions about where and how they publish and present their work.
Register online.
Tuesday, October 7, 2025, 10:05 AM – 11:20 AM.
See event description for more details.
Explore Creating a Website for Your Research
Technology has allowed for scholarship to be created and shared in new and exciting ways. Consider a whole new audience for your research. In this workshop, you’ll learn the possibilities when you decide to share your research online. We will discuss possible web hosting options and tools that can help bring your research to life on the web.
Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14857540.
Tuesday, October 7, 2025, 1:15 PM – 2:30 PM.
See event description for more details.
Explore Creating a Website for Your Research
Technology has allowed for scholarship to be created and shared in new and exciting ways. Consider a whole new audience for your research. In this workshop, you’ll learn the possibilities when you decide to share your research online. We will discuss possible web hosting options and tools that can help bring your research to life on the web.
Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14857686.
Wednesday, October 8, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
See event description for more details.
Silent Book Club at Thomas Cooper Library
Love reading and talking about books? Come join us! Select a book from our browsing collection or bring your own. We'll read in silence, then end with optional discussion time. Like the book you started? Check it out and take it with you!
Admission Cost: Free.
Wednesday, October 8, 2025, 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM.
Data Visualization - The Essentials - Application Principles and Processes
Data visualization literacy is already an essential knowledge requirement for our academic environment as well as generally. Data visualization application knowledge and skills are becoming increasingly valuable and even required in more and more of the academic and work world. To create and use data visualizations in our academic and work worlds we first must answer a couple of questions. We then need some basic understanding of how the predominant data visualization tools function. In this learning session we will consider and discuss five essentials for applying data visualization:
How do we determine the appropriate data visualization type(s) to use?
, How do we decide which data visualization tool or product to use?
, How do the three predominant data visualization tools (Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau) compare in terms of usage?
, Why, when, and how might we use programming languages such as R and Python for creating data visualizations?
, How might we use tools such as ArcGIS and…
Wednesday, October 8, 2025, 1:10 PM – 2:10 PM.
See event description for more details.
The Good, the Bad & the Naked of USC History: Historic Horseshoe History Tour
Have you ever been strolling along the Historic Horseshoe bricks and found yourself wondering about the history of Carolina and its traditions? Well, you're in luck! Meet University Archivist Elizabeth West in front of the Caroliniana for a Horseshoe history tour. Learn the origins of the Tiger Burn and what national record Gamecock students set in 1974! Free and open to the public.
Admission Cost: Free.
Thursday, October 9, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
South Caroliniana Library 910 Sumter Street.
Generative AI - The Essentials - GenAI is Different!
Although it has only been three years since the introduction of ChatGPT, most of us have heard more than a little about artificial intelligence (AI) and more specifically generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). It seems everything in our current world has some connection to AI and/or GenAI. At the same time, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding about GenAI; what it is, how it works, if we should use it, how we can use it effectively, etc. This session will discuss five essentials regarding GenAI:
GenAI is fundamentally different than traditional information and information search systems with which we are familiar
, Our interactions with GenAI need to be different than our interactions with traditional information systems in order to be effective
, Our uses and expectations of GenAI systems and tools need to be different than how we have used and what we have expected from our traditional systems
, We are still in the early stages of development, evolution, application, and adoption of…
Monday, October 13, 2025, 2:20 PM – 3:10 PM.
See event description for more details.
Generative AI - The Essentials - Conversations with GenAI
While we don't want to anthropomorphize GenAI any more than it already is, there is something to be said for communicating with GenAI tools in a more human conversational manner. After all, conversational AI is a key component in most GenAI tools and the way they are designed to work is based on machine learning and machine communication being more like how we believe humans learn and communicate. Just as there are skills and techniques one can learn to communicate more effectively with our fellow humans, there are also skills and techniques one can learn and apply to communicating and conversing with GenAI tools. The popular technical term for this is prompt engineering. During this session we will consider five essentials related to communicating effectively with GenAI tools:
GenAI tools are designed to use conversational AI to both understand our inquiries and respond in an understandable manner
, There is both a skill and an art to effectively communicating with GenAI tools
, GenAI tools are…
Wednesday, October 15, 2025, 9:40 AM – 10:30 AM.
See event description for more details.
Introduction to R Using RStudio
This workshop will introduce users to the R programming language using RStudio. R is an easy-to-learn programming language often used for scientific and statistical data processing. RStudio is an integrated development environment for and graphical user interface to the R language which greatly simplifies programming in R. Together they combine to provide a free and convenient programming platform for data analysis and visualization.
Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14882707.
Thursday, October 16, 2025, 10:05 AM – 11:20 AM.
See event description for more details.
What’s Your Scholarly Presence?
Discover ways to promote your research for maximum visibility and impact using ResearchGate, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and other tools. We’ll discuss pre-publication considerations, practice techniques for promoting your work, and explore how to monitor your research impact.
Register online. .
Thursday, October 16, 2025, 11:40 AM – 12:50 PM.
See event description for more details.
The Business of Publishing
Critical professional and life decisions on the part of early-career scholars occur within the economy of higher education. Academic publishers (of both books and journals) are a part of that economy and, as gatekeepers in processes of hiring, tenure, and promotion, presses play a major role in scholarly careers inside and outside the academy. To make informed decisions, it is necessary to understand the business of academic publishing.
This workshop will provide a practical overview of publishing trends, from the business practices that shape academic publishing to the ways that technological innovation are reshaping the industry. As an early-career scholar, understanding these trends will help you make informed career decisions as you engage with the world of publishing.
Michael J. McGandy is director of University of South Carolina Press. Prior to arriving at USC, he worked at Cornell University Press, where he was Senior Editor and Editorial Director of the Three Hills imprint. He has also…
Thursday, October 16, 2025, 1:15 PM – 2:45 PM.
See event description for more details.
Generative AI - The Essentials - Building a Basic Toolbox
We began with ChatGPT as THE GenAI tool, and for many, that may still be the only GenAI product they have ever used. In the time since its inception, however, many other GenAI products and tools have been developed. As with most tools and technologies, rarely is there one that does everything we need or want. During this session, we will build a GenAI toolbox that will be useful in our academic and general endeavors. Using the research lifecycle as a functional guide, we will consider five essential areas and mention a tool or tools relevant to those areas:
General purpose GenAI chatbots
, GenAI search tools
, Citation-mapping GenAI tools
, Data analysis/visualization GenAI tools
, GenAI writing assistants
,
We will also briefly mention non-text (image, video, sound) GenAI products.
Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14778600.
Friday, October 17, 2025, 10:50 AM – 11:40 AM.
See event description for more details.
Graduate Student Research Toolbox
Learn about the library resources and services that are critical for success in graduate research. Topics to be covered include citation management tools, locating dissertations and theses, interlibrary loan, and research support services.
Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14959943.
Monday, October 20, 2025, 10:50 AM – 11:35 AM.
See event description for more details.
Introduction to AI and Machine Learning
This workshop is introductory session for students and researchers who wish to gain a basic understanding of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). The workshop will focus on the basic concepts and underlying algorithms of AI and ML, typical applications such as computer vision and object classification, commonly used software packages, and the use of hardware accelerators.
Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14882765.
Tuesday, October 21, 2025, 1:15 PM – 2:30 PM.
See event description for more details.
Cleaning Messy Data with OpenRefine
This workshop will be held in person at Thomas Cooper Library. Before it can be analyzed or visualized, inconsistencies and errors in data need to be fixed. If you'd like to learn how to prepare your data for analysis, please register for this session. OpenRefine is a free tool for cleaning and transforming messy tabular data. In this workshop, participants will learn about OpenRefine and get hands-on experience with basic data cleaning.
Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14830842.
Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 1:10 PM – 2:00 PM.
See event description for more details.
Data Visualization - The Essentials - History, Concepts, and Principles
Most of us live in a visual world. As technologies have developed, more of our world has become more visual. This is no less true in our learning, teaching, and research world as it is in our personal living world. Data visualization, the use of charts, graphs, plots, maps, etc. to explain and explore data, has now become an essential literacy as well as an expected application skill in growing areas of academia and work. This learning session provides a foundation for developing a fundamental understanding of data visualization. We will discuss five essentials:
What data visualization is and why it's important
, Where data visualization came from and how continues to evolve
, Some of the science explaining why and how data visualization works
, Foundational principles that help to define effective and ineffective data visualizations
, Crucial ethical and accessibility issues related to data visualization use
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Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14771401.
Tuesday, November 4, 2025, 10:05 AM – 11:20 AM.
See event description for more details.
Data Visualization - The Essentials - Application Principles and Processes
Data visualization literacy is already an essential knowledge requirement for our academic environment as well as generally. Data visualization application knowledge and skills are becoming increasingly valuable and even required in more and more of the academic and work world. To create and use data visualizations in our academic and work worlds we first must answer a couple of questions. We then need some basic understanding of how the predominant data visualization tools function. In this learning session we will consider and discuss five essentials for applying data visualization:
How do we determine the appropriate data visualization type(s) to use?
, How do we decide which data visualization tool or product to use?
, How do the three predominant data visualization tools (Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau) compare in terms of usage?
, Why, when, and how might we use programming languages such as R and Python for creating data visualizations?
, How might we use tools such as ArcGIS and…
Thursday, November 6, 2025, 2:50 PM – 4:05 PM.
See event description for more details.
Extracting Data from Websites Using APIs
Unlock the power of APIs to efficiently extract and utilize data from websites! This hands-on workshop is designed for beginners and intermediate learners who want to gain practical skills in API integration. Participants will learn the fundamentals of APIs, how to access and interpret API documentation, and techniques for extracting structured data for analysis. We will cover the following topics:
What is an API and its role in data extraction?
, How to make requests and handle responses?
, What are API keys ?
, How to parse the JSON and other data formats?
, New York Times API example for extracting data
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By the end of this workshop, you’ll have the basic understanding of APIs for tasks like gathering data for research and analysis.
Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14866148.
Friday, November 7, 2025, 10:10 AM – 11:10 AM.
See event description for more details.
Generative AI - The Essentials - GenAI is Different!
Although it has only been three years since the introduction of ChatGPT, most of us have heard more than a little about artificial intelligence (AI) and more specifically generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). It seems everything in our current world has some connection to AI and/or GenAI. At the same time, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding about GenAI; what it is, how it works, if we should use it, how we can use it effectively, etc. This session will discuss five essentials regarding GenAI:
GenAI is fundamentally different than traditional information and information search systems with which we are familiar
, Our interactions with GenAI need to be different than our interactions with traditional information systems in order to be effective
, Our uses and expectations of GenAI systems and tools need to be different than how we have used and what we have expected from our traditional systems
, We are still in the early stages of development, evolution, application, and adoption of…
Monday, November 10, 2025, 10:50 AM – 11:40 AM.
See event description for more details.
Generative AI - The Essentials - Conversations with GenAI
While we don't want to anthropomorphize GenAI any more than it already is, there is something to be said for communicating with GenAI tools in a more human conversational manner. After all, conversational AI is a key component in most GenAI tools and the way they are designed to work is based on machine learning and machine communication being more like how we believe humans learn and communicate. Just as there are skills and techniques one can learn to communicate more effectively with our fellow humans, there are also skills and techniques one can learn and apply to communicating and conversing with GenAI tools. The popular technical term for this is prompt engineering. During this session we will consider five essentials related to communicating effectively with GenAI tools:
GenAI tools are designed to use conversational AI to both understand our inquiries and respond in an understandable manner
, There is both a skill and an art to effectively communicating with GenAI tools
, GenAI tools are…
Wednesday, November 12, 2025, 10:50 AM – 11:40 AM.
See event description for more details.
Silent Book Club at Thomas Cooper Library
Love reading and talking about books? Come join us! Select a book from our browsing collection or bring your own. We'll read in silence, then end with optional discussion time. Like the book you started? Check it out and take it with you!
Admission Cost: Free.
Wednesday, November 12, 2025, 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM.
The Good, the Bad & the Naked of USC History: Historic Horseshoe History Tour
Have you ever been strolling along the Historic Horseshoe bricks and found yourself wondering about the history of Carolina and its traditions? Well, you're in luck! Meet University Archivist Elizabeth West in front of the Caroliniana for a Horseshoe history tour. Learn the origins of the Tiger Burn and what national record Gamecock students set in 1974! Free and open to the public.
Admission Cost: Free.
Thursday, November 13, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
South Caroliniana Library 910 Sumter Street.
Text Analysis for Beginners
Do you have a textual data for qualitative analysis! This session is perfect for anyone looking to transform unstructured text data into meaningful insights.
Key topics include:
Introduction to text analysis: What is it and why it matters?
, Reading and preprocessing text: Cleaning and preparing data for analysis.
, Extracting insights like word frequency and word count.
, Tools and techniques: Overview of Python libraries (e.g. NLTK) and other user-friendly platforms
, Hands-on work with real text and python notebook
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By the end of the workshop, you’ll have a foundational understanding of text mining concepts and practical experience working with basic tools and techniques. Whether you’re a student, researcher, or professional, this workshop will equip you with the skills to start your text analysis journey!
Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14866289.
Thursday, November 13, 2025, 2:20 PM – 3:20 PM.
See event description for more details.
Generative AI - The Essentials - Building a Basic Toolbox
We began with ChatGPT as THE GenAI tool, and for many, that may still be the only GenAI product they have ever used. In the time since its inception, however, many other GenAI products and tools have been developed. As with most tools and technologies, rarely is there one that does everything we need or want. During this session, we will build a GenAI toolbox that will be useful in our academic and general endeavors. Using the research lifecycle as a functional guide, we will consider five essential areas and mention a tool or tools relevant to those areas:
General purpose GenAI chatbots
, GenAI search tools
, Citation-mapping GenAI tools
, Data analysis/visualization GenAI tools
, GenAI writing assistants
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We will also briefly mention non-text (image, video, sound) GenAI products.
Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14778780.
Friday, November 14, 2025, 10:50 AM – 11:40 AM.
See event description for more details.