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Brown School Library

Location: Brown Hall, 3rd Floor
Serving the research and teaching needs of the Brown School community in social work, public health, and social policy.

Brown School Library Sessions

Feel free to attend the following library sessions.  Many of the sessions offer hands-on instruction.  In addition to Brown School Library sessions, the list includes selected sessions from WUSTL's Becker Medical Library and WUSTL's Olin Library.

Book Making Workshop: Link Stitch AM
Learn how to make your own book bound in link stitch, which is a decorative binding technique with an exposed spine that shows the stitching. Attendees will be able to view examples from the Rare Book Collections before learning step-by-step how to create their own.
     March 25,  9:30 a.m. ‒ noon, Olin Library, Special Collections Classroom
     Please register: https://library.wustl.edu/events/book-making-workshop-link-stitch
Book Making Workshop: Link Stitch PM
Learn how to make your own book bound in link stitch, which is a decorative binding technique with an exposed spine that shows the stitching. Attendees will be able to view examples from the Rare Book Collections before learning step-by-step how to create their own.
     March 25,  2:00 ‒ 4:30 p.m., Olin Library, Special Collections Classroom
     Please register: https://library.wustl.edu/events/book-making-workshop-link-stitch-2
Course Reserves Tips
Learn how to find and use the Brown School course reserves located in the Library Catalog and Ares.
          Please email the Library for a one-on-one or small group appointment: brownlibrary@wustl.edu
Catalog of Library Materials
Learn how to search the catalog, request WUSTL items, set up a reading history, and renew checked out items.  No registration needed.
          By appointment or Recorded session
Data Cleaning with Python
Data can be messy. Researchers commonly lament the amount of time spent preparing data before any analysis can take place. Potential steps for preparing or “cleaning” data include changing data types, adjusting values for consistency and validation, splitting or joining values, and removing extraneous records, to name a few. This workshop will cover some common data-cleaning steps using Python and the Pandas library. Basic knowledge of Python syntax is recommended.
     March 24,  10:00 a.m. ‒ noon, Olin Library, Instruction Room 2
     Please register: https://library.wustl.edu/events/data-cleaning-with-pythong
Data Sharing for Federally Funded Researchers
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) recently put out a memo stating that all federally funded, scientific data needs to be shared without delay, and funders were encouraged to make that a requirement. In January, the NIH will be ahead of the ball, as its stronger data-sharing requirements are going into effect. In this workshop, you will learn more about the new requirements, as well as resources to be in compliance with these new regulations, and how to utilize the support available for WashU researchers.
     March 31,  10:00 a.m. ‒ noon, Zoom or Olin Library, Instruction Room 2
     Please register: https://library.wustl.edu/events/data-sharing-for-federally-funded-researchers-13
     April 14,  10:00 a.m. ‒ noon, Zoom or Olin Library, Room 142
     Please register: https://library.wustl.edu/events/data-sharing-for-federally-funded-researchers-14
Don’t Sign Your Rights Away: Author's Rights
Hope to publish an article in the future? Learn how to retain your copyrights so you can freely use your own work for teaching, scholarly, and professional activities.  Otherwise, you may have to pay the publisher in order to use your own work.  Learn about WUSTL's open access repository for articles. No registration needed.
          By appointment or PowerPoint slides
Evidence-Based Resources
Learn about the evidence-based resources.  Covers evidence-based databases, websites, and filters.  These resources should save you some time when doing evidence-based assignments.  No registration needed.
          By appointment or Tutorial
Finding Similar Phrases
Learn how to find similar phrases in order to expand your database search.  Covers the research guide tab, database thesauri, database words, and a thesaurus.  No registration needed.
          By appointment or Recorded session
GIS Week in November  (Geographic Information Systems) (expected 2023)
Graduate Student Data Sharing Workshop
This workshop will guide researchers in preparing and sharing data to meet funder, publisher, and community requirements. Registration is required and is limited to graduate students at Washington University in St. Louis.
     March 28,  4:00 ‒ 5:00 p.m., Zoom
     Please register: https://library.wustl.edu/events/graduate-student-data-sharing-workshop
Graduate Student Data Visualization Workshop
This workshop will introduce you to data visualization concepts, tips, and tools. Registration is required and is limited to graduate students at Washington University in St. Louis.
     March 23,  4:00 ‒ 5:00 p.m., Zoom
     Please register: https://library.wustl.edu/events/graduate-student-data-visualization-workshop
Graduate Student Data Wrangling Workshop
This workshop will introduce foundational data wrangling tools, tips, and tricks. Registration is required and is limited to graduate students at Washington University in St. Louis.
     March 21,  4:00 ‒ 5:00 p.m., Zoom
     Please register: https://library.wustl.edu/events/graduate-student-data-wrangling-workshop
Green Get-It Button
Learn how to use the green get-it button to retrieve full text items. Learn what to do when the full text doesn't display. No registration needed.
          By appointment or Recorded session
Interlibrary Loan (Mobius and Illiad)
WUSTL cannot buy every book and journal that is available.  Learn how to use the interlibrary loan system to request items that WUSTL does not own.  No registration needed.
          By appointment or Recorded session
Library Resources After Graduation
Learn about the library resources that are available to you after you graduate.  No registration needed.
     April 19,  8:00 - 8:30 p.m., Zoom session
     April 20,  4:15 - 4:45 p.m., Goldfarb G246
     April 24,  8:00 - 8:30 p.m., Zoom session
     April 25,  4:15 - 4:45 p.m., Goldfarb G359
     May 2,  4:15 - 4:45 p.m., Zoom session
     May 3,  8:00 - 8:30 p.m., Zoom session
     May 5,  12:15 - 12:45 p.m., Zoom session
     By appointment: https://libguides.wustl.edu/BrownSchoolLibrary/About
     or PowerPoint
Medline via PubMed: A Fantastic, Free Health Database
Learn how to effectively search PubMed for public health, psychological, and therapeutic information. Covers MeSH searching, applying limits, using the search history, changing the results display, accessing full text, using the evidence-based clinical queries, and more.  No registration needed.
          By appointment or Recorded session
Open Access Month (expected October 2023)
Search Strategies for Database Searching  
Learn about the basic search strategies and use them in a database search in order to find relevant articles. Covers Boolean Operators, truncation, phrase searching, field qualification, proximity operators, using the search history, and applying limits. No registration needed.  
     By appointment or Tutorial
Social Explorer Census & Social Statistics    
Learn how to use Social Explorer for census and social statistics.  Generate maps.  Overview of the 2010 census and the American Community Survey.  Produce statistical reports through the Premade, Keyword, and table features (age, race, households, education, income, etc.).  No registration needed.
          By appointment
Social Welfare/Policy Library Resources    
Learn about library resources that may help you with your social welfare/policy assignments. Covers Congress.gov, ProQuest Congressional, CQ Researcher, PAIS, and more.  No registration needed.
          By appointment
StatBytes series of lunchtime statistics and software workshops led by the Brown School StatLab peer instructors and leadership.
March 28, noon–1pm: Basics of R Markdown: Transforming code and analysis output into high quality documents and reports (Hunter McGuire via Zoom)
April 6, noon–1pm: Introduction to R (Kim Johnson via Zoom)
Tour the Brown School Library    
Take a walking tour of the Brown School Library and learn where the resources are located.  No registration needed.         
          By appointment
Zotero Citation Manager
Learn how to use Zotero to organize citations and create APA bibliographies.  No registration needed.
     March 22, 4:00-5:00 p.m. Goldfarb 359
     March 24, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. Zoom
          By appointment or Recorded session
Here is the above list in chronological order:
March 21,  4:00 ‒ 5:00 p.m., Graduate Student Data Wrangling Workshop, Zoom
March 22, 4:00-5:00 p.m., Zotero Citation Manager, Goldfarb 359
March 23,  4:00 ‒ 5:00 p.m., Graduate Student Data Visualization Workshop, Zoom
March 24,  10:00 a.m. ‒ noon, Data Cleaning with Python, Olin Library, Instruction Room 2
March 24, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m., Zotero Citation Manager, Zoom
March 25,  9:30 a.m. ‒ noon, Book Making Workshop: Link Stitch AM, Olin Library, Special Collections Classroom
March 25,  2:00 ‒ 4:30 p.m., Book Making Workshop: Link Stitch PM, Olin Library, Special Collections Classroom
March 28, noon–1pm: Basics of R Markdown: Transforming code and analysis output into high quality documents (StatBytes) via Zoom
March 28,  4:00 ‒ 5:00 p.m., Graduate Student Data Sharing Workshop, Zoom
March 31,  10:00 a.m. ‒ noon, Data Sharing for Federally Funded Researchers, Zoom or Olin Library, Instruction Room 2
April 6, noon–1pm: Introduction to R (StatBytes) via Zoom
April 14, 10:00 a.m. ‒ noon, Data Sharing for Federally Funded Researchers, Zoom or Olin Library, Room 142
April 19,  8:00 - 8:30 p.m., Library Resources After Graduation, Zoom
April 20,  4:15 - 4:45 p.m., Library Resources After Graduation, Goldfarb G246
April 24,  8:00 - 8:30 p.m., Library Resources After Graduation, Zoom
April 25,  4:15 - 4:45 p.m., Library Resources After Graduation, Goldfarb G359
May 2,  4:15 - 4:45 p.m., Library Resources After Graduation, Zoom
May 3,  8:00 - 8:30 p.m., Library Resources After Graduation, Zoom
May 5,  12:15 - 12:45 p.m., Library Resources After Graduation, Zoom 

Additional Sessions at WUSTL

Brown School Library Session Handouts