[OPLINLIST] Scheduling

[doug.anderson@cacl.info]

If you have a Gmail account that the library staff can all have access to,
then you can use Google Calendar (http://calendar.google.com/).  It's a
beta version, and so it has a few bugs -- printing doesn't work very well,
for instance -- but I have found it very easy to use for scheduling in my
department.  We don't currently use it at ACDL for meeting room
scheduling, but I imagine it would work well for that.

If you like, to cover your two separate meeting rooms, you could set up
two different calendars with the same account, each one color-coded, on
the web version.  (The print version will print only in black and white at
present.)

The calendar can even be made publicly viewable, if you are so inclined,
or set up so that only people who know the password can view it.  (One
reason you may not want it publicly viewable might be if you have concerns
about the privacy of the people booking the room.)

One downside might be that any time your Internet connection is down, you
would not have live access to the calendar.

If you don't have a Gmail account, but would like one so you can
experiment with Google Calendar to see if you'd like it, I would be happy
to send you an invite to join Gmail.

-- Doug Anderson


> I am looking for new and creative ways to schedule our community rooms
> more
> accurately, without accidental conflicts.  We currently use a month at a
> glance desk calendar.  We are trying a week at a glance, but not very
> successfully.  Does anyone use a calendar that can be networked between
> the
> office computers or have a favorite excel format that they especially
> like?
> I am open to trying other ways.  We have two small community rooms.

-- 
Reference Coordinator
Ashtabula County District Library
335 W. 44th St.
Ashtabula OH 44004
440/997-9341 ext. 4
fax: 440/992-7714
http://www.acdl.info/