03 Why use Jupyter Notebooks?

This part of the session examines the specific benefits of using Jupyter Notebooks.

It is important to highlight that there are always going to be different tools available for different purposes and Jupyter is part of that bigger environment, but one of the big benefits is that it is free, doesn't require anything special to run (ie can be used in a normal browser on the internet, or can be run on local machine with no internet), and you don't need to be a programmer to use it. You do need to use code though!

Jupyter Notebooks are useful for data cleaning, can use different languages, pick up where software doesn't help, are great for recordkeeping for researchers, for recording how you are working and can be re-used by others and yourself (later, after you've forgotten how you did what you did!).

Another one of the big benefits is that Jupyter Notebooks can connect to remote datasets, meaning you can explore and interrogate large datasets without having to download them. This can save a lot of time.

The last thing to make clear is that "Jupyter lets you combine text, images, and live code within a single web page. So not only can you read about collections data, you can download it, analyse it, and visualise it – all within your browser!" - OZ GLAM Workbench (@wragge)