Library 501 Past Workshops

Automatically Download a Web Archive with Wget

Does your research require you to build an archive of data from public websites? In this workshop attendees will learn how to automatically download webpages with the wget program in your command line interface without going through the tedious process of manually downloading webpages. Attendees will also be guided through the process of cleaning up data once it’s downloaded.

Identifiers and Impact: Using ORCiD and Your Research Impact

Researcher identifiers are a simple and convenient way to ensure your work is searchable, properly cited, and can help you analyse your research impact.  In this workshop, learn about what researcher identifiers are, the benefits of having one, and how having one can impact your current and future research.   Attendees will also be guided through the process of signing up for an ORCiD account.

Creating Your Own Scholarly Edition

“A scholarly edition is an information resource which offers a scholarly enriched representation of primarily historical documents or texts” (Neuber, 2014). In this workshop, we will explore scholarly editing and attendees will learn how to create their own critical edition using online tools. No prior experience is needed.

Research Collaboration with Zotero and Hypothes.is.

Frustrated with tracking down your research group’s files in your email? This workshop will share two collaboration tools to streamline the activities of your research group:

• Share your resource libraries + create group bibliographies with Zotero
• Annotate websites, PDFs, and other documents as a group with Hypothes.is

Images: Finding and Using Images for Professional Research, Theses and Publishing

This 90-minute session covers a wide range of issues pertaining to using images (charts, maps, photographs, statistics) beyond teaching and study. The session will introduce required image and file specifications, ethical considerations in research, current publishing requirements in the humanities versus sciences concerning images, lab images and the copyright complexities when using your own images from onsite research, excavations, museums and other public or private locations.

Making a Map in RStudio

This virtual hands-on workshop will introduce a few selected R packages (available in RStudio) for creating simple maps. The topics covered include installing R packages, writing and running commands from R Script, plotting data, plus adding headers, labels and a legend to creating a map layout for export.  This workshop is most suitable for novice to experienced R users who have never used the software before for mapping data. (This is NOT an "Introduction to R" workshop)

Search Google like a Pro

This hands-on workshop showcases tips and tricks to power up your research using the world’s most popular search engine.

We will take a quick look at how Google Search works and then explore Google’s advanced search features in depth.  We’ll take a tour of Google Scholar and highlight other Google products for academic research.  The strengths and limitations of Google will also be discussed.

At the end of this workshop, you will be able to:

• Use Google’s search operators and other limiters
• Optimize the keyword strategies you use to search Google
• Search for and by image
• Use Google Scholar and other Google products more effectively
• Identify resources for learning and keeping up with Google as a research tool

Literature Synthesis 3-Part Series (Bootcamp)- Part 3: Using COVIDENCE for Literature Screening

Once you have conducted your database searches and have an archive of records, you need to screen and appraise them. This session introduces you to COVIDENCE, a software solution available at UofT that simplifies this daunting process. After attending this session, you will be able to start working with COVIDENCE to expedite the screening and data extraction for your literature synthesis project.

Learning outcomes:

• make a COVIDENCE account;
• navigate the interface to upload your literature records and set up the screening;
• practice creating forms based on inclusion – exclusion criteria, setting up risk of bias assessments, and extracting data.

Creating Your Own Scholarly Edition

“A scholarly edition is an information resource which offers a scholarly enriched representation of primarily historical documents or texts” (Neuber, 2014). In this workshop, we will explore scholarly editing and attendees will learn how to create their own critical edition using online tools. No prior experience is needed. 

Library 501 Literature Synthesis 3-Part Series (Bootcamp)-Part 2: Structured Searching

Now that you know what kind of literature synthesis project you will be working on, it’s time to practice searching. After attending this session, you will be able to select the appropriate databases and apply the structured search method in most search environments.

Learning outcomes:

• translate your PICO or concept map into structured search statements;
• apply structured search techniques in common database environments such as OVID, ProQuest, EBSCO, and the PubMed interface;
• practice search translation and data export into citation managers