Harvard Kennedy School

HKS Library Newsletter

Welcome to the Spring Semester! 💐

We're excited to see everyone back on campus and in the HKS Library. In this email you'll find:

Upcoming HKS Library events ✨
LGBTQI+ Policy Guide launch 🏳️‍🌈
Donate: Harvard Valentine's Day Toiletries, Hygiene, & Totes Drive 💝
Other research & data learning opportunities around Harvard 💻

HKS LIBRARY EVENTS ✨

Library & IT Pop-Ups in the Sunshine Lobby

Tuesday, January 24, 2023 11:30AM-1:30PM	Thursday, January 26, 2023 11:30AM-1:30PM
Wednesday, February 1, 2023 11:30AM-12:45PM	Friday, February 3, 2023 11:30AM-1:30PM

Classes are back in session and so are the HKS Library and IT! Need help reconnecting to Harvard Wi-Fi or remembering how to print? Want a refresher on using Zotero or HOLLIS? Looking to get an early start finding resources for a paper? Don’t know where to begin analyzing or visualizing your data? Visit our table during lunchtime in the Sunshine Lobby! We’ll be happy to answer your questions and give you plenty of candy and swag. No registration required.

Programming + Pizza // Introduction to GIS Workshop

Wednesday, February 8, 2023
5:00-7:00PM
Library Commons

Belle Lipton, GIS Outreach Librarian at the Harvard Map Collection, will get you started using geographic information systems (GIS) and geospatial data. You'll learn basic geospatial file formats, how to import and style data in a GIS, and how to make your first map.

We only have 16 slots available in this workshop so register quickly!

Belle also hosts weekly GIS Office Hours on Tuesday, 10am - 12pm, in the Lamont Media Lab. Find details on the Harvard Library Events Calendar.

Details & Registration

Programming + Pizza // Open Coding Time

Wednesday, March 8, 2023
5:00-7:00PM
Library Commons

This edition of Programming + Pizza will provide an open, collaborative space for those working on programming, coding, or computational projects. Stuck on a problem in R? Wondering if there’s a different way to approach something in Python? Just want general feedback, regardless of the tool or language you're using? This is the space for you!

We’ll start off the evening with a language-agnostic “data icebreaker” for folks to get warmed up. Whoever successfully solves the programming problem first will win a small prize!

Details & Registration

Data + Donuts // Access and Equity in College Admissions with Sharad Goel

Friday, March 24, 2023
10:30-11:30AM
Library Commons + Zoom

Sharad Goel is a Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, and an affiliate faculty member in Computer Science at the Harvard School of Engineering. He looks at public policy through the lens of computer science, bringing a computational perspective to a diverse range of contemporary social issues including policing practices, fair machine learning, and democratic governance.

At this session of Data + Donuts, Professor Goel will talk about his recent empirical work on access to education.

Details & Registration

Data + Donuts // Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project 2.0 with Christian Testa

Friday, April 28, 2023
10:30-11:30AM
Library Commons + Zoom

Christian Testa (he/him) is a statistical analyst and programmer focused on modeling health outcomes and characterizing health inequalities. He works on the Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project 2.0, which expands on trailblazing work from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to use geocoding and area-based socioeconomic measures to better inform efforts to address health inequities in the U.S., including along racial lines. The latest project work features a publicly available training manual for using Census data to perform geographic health disparity analysis in R.

Details & Registration

Item from the HKS Library's Political Buttons Collection. Circular black button with an upside-down pink triangle in the middle. Text over the triangle reads, "The March. Pride DC. 1993."

From the Political Buttons at HKS Collection.

LGBTQI+ Policy Guide Launch 🏳️‍🌈

We are excited to offer a new research guide on LGBTQI+ Policy! This guide is a starting point for research on LGBTQI+ policy, gender and sexuality studies, and relevant initiatives at HKS and Harvard. It features curated books, data sources, history and primary sources, and more.

Donate: Harvard Valentine's Day Toiletries, Hygiene, & Totes Drive 💝

Harvard Campus Services and YWCA Cambridge are organizing a donation drive for Cambridge neighbors in need. Bring your new and unopened toiletries, menstrual care products, makeup, and tote bags to any of the following locations on the HKS Campus by Monday, February 6 at 2:00 pm.

HKS Library - right entrance, ground floor of Littauer
Belfer 322
Littauer 317
Student Lounge - third floor of Ofer
One Brattle - third floor lobby near the elevators

Those not on campus can drop off donations at 28 Travis Street in Allston by placing items in the labeled, covered bins outside the entrances. Donations will also be accepted by mail, addressed to Harvard Cosmetics Drive, c/o Kieran Clyne, 28 Travis Street, Allston, MA 02134.

Other Research & Data Learning Opportunities around Harvard 💻

Belle Lipton, our guest workshop instructor from the Harvard Map Collection, hosts GIS Office Hours every Tuesday, 10 am - 12pm, in the Lamont Media Lab. Find details on the Harvard Library Events Calendar.

Harvard Library's Qualitative Research Support Group is offering a series of workshops this spring on NVivo, interview skills, social media analysis, text analysis, and more.

Countway Library at Harvard Medical School is offering several data management workshops throughout the semester, primarily focused on the National Institutes of Health's new policy on Data Management & Sharing Plans.

The HKS Library's Qualitative Course Assistant, Kailah McGee Adefolalu, is supporting a spring course at the Graduate School of Education called "Building Nimble and Democratic Minds: From Practice to Theory and Back to Practice" taught by Daniel Rothstein. HKS students are welcome to cross-register!