Come to the PUG (Python Users’ Group)

a PUG

Photo is © Mason Brown. Used with permission.

As part of my work as Digital Scholarship Librarian, I often pop in on the Python Users’ Group (PUG), started by the GC Digital Initiatives and frequented by members of the GC Digital Fellows. It’s one of my favorite recurring events at the GC, because of what it offers to the students (and faculty!) who wander into room 7414. Every other week, we Python enthusiasts meet to discuss the projects we’re working on, talk about problems we are having with our code, and share new tools and libraries that might help us in the future. Regularly, students who are completely new to programming will stop in, and they are warmly greeted, listened to, and advised about how to get started.

I think it’s fitting that Python is what unites this group, as its human-language-like syntax is itself welcoming to neophytes, and its libraries are useful for statistical work and a huge variety of other goals. At the PUG, I am gratified to see students from every program and field of study–nowhere else at the GC have I met this varied a group of students, all with great ideas for using  programmatic techniques to further their study.

So come! If you have ever thought that a programmatic approach to your research might help you, or if you are just curious about how computers work, you will benefit from the great, kind expertise found at the PUG. The next meeting is on November 16th at 12pm, room 7414.

About the Author

Stephen Zweibel is Digital Scholarship Librarian at The Graduate Center.