Building the Benson Collection: Analyzing Castañeda’s Social Network

Building the Benson Collection: Analyzing Castañeda’s Social Network
Wednesday, October 25, 12–1:30pm, PCL Data Lab

Keeping track of individuals and their relationships in research can be difficult. In this workshop, we will introduce Gephi, an open-source network visualization and analysis tool that make this process more manageable.

Collectively, we will look at the correspondence of Dr. Carlos E. Castañeda (one of the Perry-Castañeda Library’s namesakes) with book dealers, donors, and collectors during his tenure as librarian (1927–1946) to visualize the sprawling social, political, and economic sphere that led to the creation of the Benson Latin American Collection. Participants will learn how to create data sets for network analysis, bring them into Gephi, and explore some of the platform’s powerful features.

LLILAS Benson Digital Scholarship