Everyone seems to live busy lives, with many appointments and activities to keep track of.  Many of your library clients carry their calendar in their pockets with the added features of alerts to remind them of appointments and the potential to share appointment details.

DISCOVER:

• Check out the calendar feature on your mobile device.  Try setting an appointment with an alert to remind you 10 minutes before it is due.
• Do you already use a Gmail calendar or perhaps you use Outlook and have your appointments synched?
• What sort of calendar of events do you have on your library website?  How does it look when viewed through a mobile device?  If you don’t have a calendar of events try visiting some of these: Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library,   The Grove Library,  Vancouver Public Library,   City of Sydney Library Network,   Auckland Libraries.

EXPLORE:

• iCalendar,  often referred to as iCal, is an internet calendar format that enables users to create and share electronic calendars across different computers and devices.
• There are tools like iCalShare that allow you to create a calendar of events that can be shared to different types of calendars.
• Google Hangouts can be integrated into a Google calendar
• See more links on our Pinterest board.

THINKING POINTS:

• Are events advertised on your website with an option to download the calendar details?
• Perhaps if your library hours have seasonal variations you could provide a Gmail calendar or iCal file of dates and hours that clients could import into their own calendar?
• Study room bookings – could your library allow customers to import them directly into their own calendars?
• Can your library clients sign up for a series of events (eg. a book club, early literacy story times, a technology course, etc.) and capture the details easily into their own calendars?