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SHARPGrads

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SHARPGrads Takes Place March 12, 2020 - Thomas Cooper Library Room 104

Registration is completely free and limited to 40 graduate students, so register now to save your place!

SHARPGrads Program

The Libraries at the University of South Carolina and the USC Graduate School are proud to offer SHARPGrads, the University Libraries' Skills, Habits, and Research Program for Graduate Students. SHARPGrads provides professional development skills training to Masters and Doctoral students at USC.

This free program consists of a series of interactive workshops during Spring Break. Participants attending 4 or more sessions will receive a certificate of achievement.
 

Program Goals

  • Provide graduate students with tools to conduct research in the digital age.
  • Supply training and exposure in areas that are not always taught in the classroom.
  • Equip graduate students with marketable skill sets to further career prospects.

Schedule and Sessions

SHARPGrads Spring 2020
Time Session Title and Description (Thomas Cooper Library - Room 104)
8:45-9:00 Welcome
9:00-9:55 What’s Your Scholarly Presence?
Presenter: Amie Freeman, Scholarly Communication Librarian
Discover ways to develop an effective scholarly presence and to promote your research for maximum visibility and impact using ResearchGate, 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.
10:00-10:55 Introduction to Text Mining  and Topic Modeling
Presenter: Kate Boyd, Director of Digital Research Services
Learn how to use Mallet and Voyant, two free and easy to use tools for mining large collections of text.
11:00-11:55 Citation Management Software and Zotero
Presenter: Kathy Snediker, Research & Instruction Librarian
Learn how using citation management software to create a personal research library can change your (research) life! This session discusses several products while focusing on Zotero, a free open-source tool.
12:00-1:30 Lunch on Your Own
1:30-2:25 Introduction to OpenRefine
Presenter: Stacy Winchester, Research Data Librarian
OpenRefine is a free tool for cleaning and transforming messy tabular data. In this workshop, participant will learn about OpenRefine and get basic hands-on experience with data cleaning.
2:30-3:25 Data Visualization – Basic Principles and Hands-on 
Presenter: Peng Gao, Data and Information Visualization Librarian
Data visualization is a powerful tool of boosting one’s research. This workshop introduces basic principles of data visualization. The audience will get hands-on experience of visualizing aspatial and spatial data using Tableau Public. The audience will also learn how to quickly create infographic of demographic data using ArcGIS online.
3:30-4:25 Digital Projects
Presenter: Amie Freeman, Scholarly Communication Librarian
Technology has allowed for scholarship to be created and shared in new and exciting ways. In this session, you’ll learn to create plans for digital projects, identify platforms and web hosting, and discover tools to bring your research to life on the web. If you have an idea in mind for a digital project, you’ll have time for hands-on practice.

 

How to incorporate your participation in SHARPGrads on your résumé or CV

  • List as "University of South Carolina Libraries' SHARPGrads Program"
  • Place this in a section such as "Professional Development Activities"  or "Other Professional Activities"