Located on the 2nd floor, Mountain Side, of the UCSB Library,(rooms 2322 and 2324) the DREAM Lab is a hub for campus-wide, data-intensive research and teaching projects.  

DREAM Lab is here.

The UCSB Library’s DREAM Lab helps UCSB scholars to learn new skills, access specialized computational resources, and build data collections. The DREAM Lab especially seeks to serve campus communities that have traditionally lacked access to such computational resources. 

The DREAM team supports data-intensive scholarship by offering open-ended, data-centric consultations for students, faculty, and staff. We offer guidance on accessing and using the Library's data collections. We provide tools to analyze and visualize quantitative, qualitative, social media, and spatial data. We also collaborate with faculty, staff, and students to use these collections and tools for teaching and research.

Data

• Data is at the center of everything we do, and we are the stewards of, and main access point to, the Library's Data Collections.
• We can get you started with qualitative analysis, Text Data Mining, or Natural Language Processing.
• GeoSpatial data analysis and cartography are our specialty!

Research

• We can help you find data in the Library's collections, choose an appropriate toolset, and get you started with data analysis tools like R and Python. 
• No data project is too big or small for an individual research consultation. Available to any UCSB student, faculty, and staff member. Just ask!
• The Library's Research Data Services team also provides supports active and ongoing management of data produced by UCSB researchers.
• Research Computing and Data is a one stop site for access to data and research services such as high performance computing clusters to data storage solutions. 

Exploration

• Explore with us in a welcoming, inclusive environment. Carpentry Workshops teach novice Data Science scholars tools like git, SQL, and Unix shell. 
• Room 2511 is a dedicated AR/VR Studio for you to explore immersive 3d content.
• We have workstations with Blender and the UNReal Engine, Rift and Vive VR headsets, and other authoring and analysis software.

Access

• We can help you find, access, and evaluate proprietary and Open Access data sources. We can even make purchases for you! UCSB faculty, students, and staff can access the Library's extensive collection of datasets.
• Collect Social Media data from Twitter, Reddit, and beyond. 
• We share licenses to specialized software, both on Virtual Machines and in the Library. Suggestions for new titles are welcome from UCSB affiliates. 

Methods

• We encourage open, FAIR methods whenever possible. We also have a group of methodological communities:​
  
  • UCSB Carpentry Community
  • Qualitative Data Analysis Study Group
  • UCSB GIS