bay bridge at night, seaside heights, nj

Our Fall 2025 digital humanities programming includes familiar topics like Zotero (citation management), collecting newspaper data, and network analysis (albeit with a dramatic twist), as well as a new one on the recently acquired ProQuest TDM Studio. Details and registration links are posted below. Alternatively, please go to dh.rutgers.edu/calendar or to libcal.rutgers.edu/calendar/nblworkshops to explore a wider range of offerings from the Libraries, including data science, GIS, and qualitative data streams. Reserve your spot to receive Zoom links and do-ahead software downloads and workshop materials.

Workshops

Citation Management with Zotero

Get started early with keeping track of what you read! Zotero is a free application that collects, manages, and formats citations and bibliographies. In this introductory, hands-on workshop, we’ll learn how to organize sources, attach PDFs and notes, create tags for easy searching, and generate bibliographies. Bring your personal laptop, download Zotero 7.0 for your OS, and the Zotero Connector for your favorite browser.

Collecting Newspaper Data Programmatically

In this introductory workshop, we will access historical and current newspaper data via web APIs using the programming language R. We will use freely available newspaper data from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America website and the New York Times Developer Portal. We will generate dataframes and create some simple data visualizations from downloaded data.

Introduction to ProQuest’s TDM Studio

ProQuest TDM Studio is a web platform that allows us to collect and analyze large amounts of textual data from across Rutgers ProQuest holdings. Given that these holdings include a wide swath of current and historical newspapers, dissertations, scholarly journals, government documents, and primary source material, the research possibilities are expansive. A Visualization Dashboard offers a no-coding interface for beginners and a Workbench provides a Jupyter notebook interface for people familiar with Python and R. This introductory workshop will demonstrate how to build and refine datasets and analyze a dataset using the Visualization and Workbench options. Create your account with a rutgers.edu email at https://tdmstudio.proquest.com. More information may be found at the TDM Studio libguide.

Network Analysis for Humanists

We will use performance data extracted from Dracor (short for drama corpora) to create and analyze a character co-appearance network in this introductory workshop. Originating in the social sciences, network analysis is a method in which relationships are studied as a system of nodes and connections (edges). No prior experience is required.

Introduction to Rondo and Socially Conscious Digital Exhibits

  • Friday, November 14, 12:00pm – 1:30pm, online (Instructor: Tajah Ebram)
  • Tuesday, November 18, 1:00pm – 2:30pm, online (Instructor: Tajah Ebram)

Learn to make simple and minimalist digital exhibits that can showcase materials from your research, teaching or creative projects. We will work with Rondo, a newly developed digital tool for developing single page exhibits using minimal computing principals. Minimal computing is in many ways a social justice oriented approach to digital tools that prioritizes accessibility, simplicity and even environmental & cultural sustainability. We will consider the uses of this approach for your work and teaching and what it can mean for exhibiting Black historical material, among other types— and activating existing digital archives.

No software or coding knowledge required! By the end of this session, you will have the bones of your exhibit site.

In advance of this session, be sure you have access to a gmail account and a github.com account!

Events

Black Bibliography Project Wikidata Edit-a-thon

  • October 29, 12:00pm – 3:00pm, in person in the Hatchery Innovation Studio of Alexander Library (Facilitator: Tajah Ebram) Register

The Black Bibliography Project is building a database of Black book history to highlight the social networks and aesthetics of Black print culture from the 1700s to the present. Come learn more about the BBP and Wikidata — a free open access knowledge base and the “sister” to Wikipedia. During the Edit-A-Thon, we will learn how to create Wikidata items for Black authors and publishers. These records will ultimately be linked to the BBP’s database and make it possible for users to discover forgotten or overlooked Black authors and other literary figures. Bring your laptop & Sign up for a wikidata account here.

GIS Day Mapathon

  • November 19, 4:00pm-6:00pm, in person in the Hatchery Innovation Studio of Alexander Library (Facilitators: Francesca, Sue, and Mike) Register

Celebrate GIS Day and Geography Awareness week!  Together with fellow Rutgers students, staff and faculty, you will contribute geospatial data to OpenStreetMap, a free and editable map of the world that is used by communities, organizations and governments worldwide to address local development challenges and aid disaster response. Our project will be decided closer to the date. In past years, Rutgers students, staff, and faculty worked together on a mapping project to help NGO efforts with relief operations in Puerto Rico, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Tanzania. No mapping experience or knowledge is necessary. Training will be provided. Join at any time during the scheduled event!

Sponsored by the Libraries and the Department of Geography.