You’re feeling stumped. Is there help available?
YES!
In-person (virtual) help
Four DH experts work for UCLA and are available to help you with any questions I can’t answer:
Dr. Wendy Perla Kurtz is a lecturer and project scientist in the Digital Humanities program. Dr. Kurtz is experienced with a broad range of DH tools and has particular expertise in mapping. You can reach her at wpkurtz@ucla.edu.
Anthony Caldwell is the assistant director of UCLA’s Digital Research Consortium and is widely knowledgeable about DH tools. He has particular expertise in 3D modeling. You can reach him at acaldwell@humnet.ucla.edu.
Dr. Ryan Horne is the digital research consultant at the Office of Advanced Research Computing. A former software engineer, he can help with many different applications and has special expertise in GIS and network analysis. You can reach him at rhorne@oarc.ucla.edu.
Dr. Francesca Albrezzi is also a digital research consultant at OARC and has a wide range of expertise in digital scholarship tools and methods. (She sometimes teaches DH101!) She is particularly experienced with 3D modeling. You can reach her at falbrezzi@oarc.ucla.edu.
In addition, several places on campus offer specialized help. The Library’s Data Science Center is such a great resource for data-cleaning, stats, coding, and mapping help, and you can book an appointment online!
For thorny visualization and mapping problems, you can make an appointment with one of the Institute for Digital Research and Education’s consultants.
Various other people are often willing to help out if we ask nicely. Talk to me if you can’t find the help you need!
Software and computers
You can check out a laptop (Mac or Windows) for up to two weeks from CLICC Laptop Lending, located in both Powell and YRL. Sometimes it’s nice to do this even if you have your own computer, since CLICC laptops come with a lot of software.
Need to access software from your own computer? You can “check out” a virtual desktop from CLICC! With a virtual desktop, you can access an entire Windows computer from a window on your own computer.
UCLA offers licenses to students for the Adobe Creative Suite and the Microsoft Office Suite. Download this software for Mac or Windows.
UCLA also offers access to LastPass Premium, a password manager.
ArcGIS Pro is available to UCLA students via a license you can obtain by emailing the Data Science Center and requesting a license for UCLA’s instance of ArcGIS Pro.
UCLA’s HumTech organization offers web hosting for students. The “basic” hosting package is free for up to 20GB. Just remember: the service has to be renewed every year—it’s not permanent—and at some point your UCLA affiliation may end. You’ll then have to move your site.
Workshops
Find an aggregated list of workshops here! The topics are highly relevant to our class and well worth checking out.
In addition, the Institute for Digital Research and Education offers workshops by request, mostly on mapping topics.
Online help
My two favorite subscription-only resources are:
- the O’Reilly library of ebooks on technical topics. These books are very expensive to purchase, but we get access through UCLA.
- the Lynda library of videos, which you can access with an LA Public Library card. These are fantastic, helpful videos.