title: Installing nltk without root access
body: <p>I came across <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12166819/use-nltk-without-installing">this</a> page where answerers have suggested that I can just use nltk on a machine without having root access. I'm trying to follow the advice there but I'm doing something wrong.</p>
  
  <p>I downloaded the source from <a href="http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a> (the file named setuptools-0.6c11.tar.gz) and then I extracted it to a folder called nltk.</p>
  
  <p>Now from the third answer on that link, I should be able to import nltk by running Python from one of the folders of the extracted contents right?</p>
  
  <p>So I tried running python from the following directories and then importing nltk:</p>
  
  <pre><code>~/nltk/
  ~/nltk/setuptools/
  ~/nltk/setuptools.egg-info/
  ~/nltk/setuptools/command/
  ~/nltk/setuptools/tests/
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But I can't import the module from anywhere.
  I'm a Python rookie. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?</p>
  
  <p>I actually need to use nltk for a university project and I do not have access root access to the university computers where these projects will run on.</p>