Program Overview

NCBI now offers a series of two-day training courses called Discovery Workshops. Each year NCBI will hold three Discovery Workshops on the NIH campus and four additional Workshops at universities, colleges or government research centers located in four of the eight regions of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM). Each Workshop will consist of four 2.5-hour hands-on sessions emphasizing a different set of NCBI resources. Each session uses specific examples to highlight important features of the resources and tools under study and to demonstrate how to accomplish common tasks.

The four modules of the Discovery Workshop focus on the following areas:

1. Sequences, Genomes and Maps
2. Proteins, Domains and Structures
3. NCBI BLAST Services
4. Human Variation and Disease Genes

Participants may attend all or any combination of these sessions. Each session is entirely hands-on and is presented in one computer classroom where the instructor will present a specific example using the live NCBI web site followed by a period of individual practice on related problems. Detailed handouts for each session will provide step-by-step instructions and additional information about each example. Each session will also provide opportunities for participants to provide comments and suggestions on NCBI services and also to attend individual consultations with NCBI staff.

How to Attend

Workshops at NIH

Workshops on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland will be held in the Lister Hill Auditorium in Building 38A. All participants must provide their own internet-ready laptop. These workshops will generally be offered in February, May, and September of each year.

Upcoming NIH workshops:

NNLM Regional Workshops

NCBI Public Services staff, in collaboration with the Regional Medical Libraries, will select host institutions for the NCBI Workshops. In general, institutions are selected based on their ability both to provide adequate facilities and support to hold the course and also to provide access to the greatest number of participants.

Registration for workshops held at institutions within the eight NNLM Regions will be managed by staff at the host institutions. Workshops began in the fall of 2010.

Upcoming NNLM Workshops: