This page has links and info to access reading and informational resources for SD212.

Free online textbooks

• Python for Everybody: Exploring Data in Python 3 (Severance)
• Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide (Cooper)
• Python for Data Analysis (McKinney, 3rd ed)

O’Reilly textbooks

O’Reilly is a technical publisher that carries a number of useful, easy-to-read textbooks on data science. We will be relying on multiple of them!

First, you have to create an O’Reilly account. This is a little bit of a pain, but you just have to do it once. You can look here for the instructions from the Nimitz library, but they are a little difficult to follow. Here is a step-by-step guide that works as of January 2024 - please email your instructor if you can’t get access!

1. Go to https://learning.oreilly.com/self-registration/u-s-naval-academy

   Enter your name, USNA email address and a new (easy to remember) password (not the same as your USNA password).

   You will be asked to confirm your email with a code they send. Check your email and enter the code.

   If you are lucky, you will get a success message. Hooray! You can now use that email address and password to access O’Reilly.

2. But that will probably not succeed; there are only a limited number of logins available through USNA directly.

   The next step is to use Navy-wide access through MWR instead.

   First go here: https://www.dodmwrlibraries.org/aafes/login and enter your DoD ID number (from your CAC) and date of birth to login.

3. Once logged in, go to “My Account” on the top-right of the page, or just open this link in a new tab: https://navy.dodmwrlibraries.org/my-account

4. On the “My Account” page, click the blue “Manage” button, enter your usna.edu email address under the O’Reilly symbol, and click “Save eResource Settings”.

5. Now go back to the MWR libraries homepage (click “home”), scroll down and click on Science and Technology; or directly open this link in a new tab: https://navy.dodmwrlibraries.org/science-technology

6. Find O’Reilly and click the blue “Access” button.

7. Hopefully this brings up https://learning.oreilly.com/. Try opening one of our textbooks like The Linux Command Line.

8. Pat yourself on the back for navigating another horribly-designed DoD IT interface.

O’Reilly textbooks we will use in this class:

• The Linux Command Line (Shotts, 2nd ed)
• Data Science at the Command Line (Janssens, 2nd ed)
• Dive Into Systems (Matthews, Newhall, Webb)
• Python in a Nutshell (Martelli et al, 4th ed)
• Python Data Science Handbook (VanderPlas, 2nd ed)

Newspapers

The library provides USNA students and faculty with access to multiple newspapers.

Two of these which consistently provide interesting data-based articles are the New York Times and the Washington Post.

We encourage everyone to take a moment and register for your free access using your USNA email address:

• To get an account for the NYTimes, go here, enter “United States Naval Academy”, and create an account using your usna.edu email address

• To get an account for the Washington Post, go here, and enter your usna.edu email address to create a free account.

Two particularly good recurring columns which focus on data analysis are NYT’s The Upshot and WaPo’s Department of Data.