Tri-Conference 2007 Google Calendar and More Eunice Schroeder Stevens County Library Hugoton, Kansas Janelle Jarboe Southwest Kansas Library System Dodge City, Kansas

What we will cover today: Why Use Google Calendar? Getting Started Suggestions for using it in your library Our Experiences – Other Positives – Things to think about – Getting staff on board – Cons Other Google Offerings

Why Google Calendar? The Pros It’s free! Easy to Update – Can drag and drop events – Easy to expand time by dragging event – Searchable inside your calendar and public events – Quick Add – Recognizes shorthand Recognizes noon as 12 pm. – Import and export calendars – Can copy from one calendar to another Easy to Use – Accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. – Notifications – by or text messaging Reminders Invitations Agenda Compatible with IE 6 or higher, Firefox or later, and Safari 2.0.3

Getting Started Go to Click on Create a New Google Account Use your current address, enter a password, enter first and last name, do word verification, create your account Will receive a verification , click on verification link to activate your account You’re ready to begin! Start entering your event dates Google tutorial/tour available: – – Link is also available on calendar login page

Getting Started - Sharing To share your calendar click on the drop down next to your name and click on “Share this calendar” When you share your calendar with someone it automatically adds your calendar to their calendar

Suggestions for Use Link library activity calendar to home page Work schedules Track leave, appointments Coordinate work and personal schedule

Our Experiences – SWKLS Calendar

Our Experiences – Stevens County Calendar

Our Experiences - Other Positives Ability to have multiple calendars – Color-coded – Everyone’s schedule is in one place Can be embedded, i.e. library web pages – Google Calendar Event Publisher Guide – Customizable – Management – Privacy Events can be invisible or can be seen on other calendars as “busy” – Can add events in a series Useful for recurring holidays, board and/or staff meetings, etc

Our Experiences - Things to Think About Defaults to 1 hour time frame – Good and bad Changes or deletions to series will ask if you want to do one or all of them

Our Experiences – Getting Staff on Board Have at least one person on staff who is a calendar “expert” Hold a short 45min – 1 hour training to get staff comfortable with the calendar – Set up accounts prior to the training – The calendar tour/tutorial is a great training tool Get rid of group paper or wall calendars if possible Make it easy for staff to access – Create a shortcut or add calendar to favorites

Our Experiences - Cons To see an individual day you must click on the small calendar at the left and not the main screen. Clicking on the day in the main calendar will let you add an event. Small calendar and main calendar are separate from each other. If you advance or go back in one it may not do it on the other. Printing is not as easy as it could be. Would be nice if the calendar would expand to the day with the most events. Have to expand the fuller days yourself to see all events. Sometimes hard to get all staff members interested in using the calendar.

Other Google Offerings Google Docs and Spreadsheets – easy way to collaboratively share documents and spreadsheets – Picasa – share photos, organize photos, free downloadable photo editor – Google Earth – view satellite images – Google Maps – maps, directions –

Our Presentation You can download our presentation at:

Contacting Us: Eunice Schroeder, Director Stevens County Library Hugoton, KS Janelle Jarboe, Assistant Tech Consultant/Trainer Southwest Kansas Library System Dodge City, KS