Thing 8: Google Calendar

I remember a time when I used the calendar in Microsoft Outlook.  I loved the pop-up feature, which would prevent me from missing important appointments.  In one office where I used to work, we relied on Outlook for planning outreach events.  Using the shared office account, we set up events and used color changes to show availability and planned attendance.  After changing positions, I no longer use Outlook on a regular basis. 

In fact, I generally do not rely on a calendar, but when I do, I turn to Google Calendar.  Because my normal schedule is relatively steady, I only use Google Calendar to keep track of one-time or sporadic events.  Because I no longer have email constantly open, I use email reminders rather than pop-ups to plan my weeks.  After adding the widget to my iGoogle page, however, I am not sure I will need them as much.  The widget shows a much cleaner preview of the coming week than the emails, but for now I will keep them as well.  I check Gmail much more often than my iGoogle page and I check it from multiple locations, whereas I usually only check my iGoogle page from home.  

I had not considered how Google Calendar might be useful for libraries.  The links provided were enlightening.  Embedding multiple calendars in one creates an easy way to target events to different users. I also believe that using Google Calendars to show library hours would be useful for libraries with irregular schedules.  Although I cannot currently apply either of these options, I will keep them in mind for the future.