Thing 8: Keepin' in Time: Google Calendar

by janussyndicate

I've had experience with this tool as well - as part of a class project, actually. It came in incredibly handy as we were digitizing a large amount of material and needed to coordinate with our archives department for use of their scanner (they only had the one available to us).

The Problem:

*Everyone in the class was responsible for a certain amount of scanning (I was on the committee for allocating scanning responsibilities, so I remember this well).

*Everyone in the class had different schedules/time preferences for when they wanted to scan their pages.

*The archive wanted to make sure that no one student could monopolize the scanner for more than 1.5 hours.

*The archive had their own hours, separate from the library.

The Solution:
(hint: It involves setting up a Google Calendar...oops, did I give it away?)

*Create a shared Google Calendar with open slots (limited to 1.5 hours max), set within the archive's open schedule.

*Share the calendar with everyone in the class and let them sign up (first come, first serve).

*Resolve any conflicts through moderation between parties - everyone was quite civilized, so this wasn't a problem.

I came away from the experience with a hearty appreciation for Google Calendar in terms of its versatility and ease of use. I also discovered a few useful practices, such as always double-checking which calendar I'm adding an event to (a hard-won lesson, there).

So in my book, Google has done well with this tool, and I plan to continue to use it further in the future.