We used a calendaring system that we had been using for room reservations, precisely because we could not get the “today’s hours” and exceptions with Google.
We have to put in the hours for each day, but the system has many options for entering repeating events, so it’s easy enough for a student to do. This works well for our 12 libraries.
The calendar system outputs an RSS feed for each library, and we parse each feed for “today’s hours” on our home pages.
Lisa
On 10/25/16, 4:12 PM, "Code for Libraries on behalf of Tara Wood" <CODE4LIB_at_LISTS.CLIR.ORG on behalf of wood19_at_UIC.EDU> wrote:
>Oh wow, that's good to know! Not being able to display exceptions to
>regular hours would be a dealbreaker for us as well.
>
>
>On Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 1:51 PM, Erin White <erwhite_at_vcu.edu> wrote:
>
>> Tara, thanks for following up on this!
>>
>> As a reminder for the listserv, here's what I said a few months ago:
>>
>> I've had my eye on Google My Business recently. You can [snip] set regular
>> > hours AND exceptions using the My Business site. This way your library's
>> > hours show up correctly in Google search.
>>
>>
>>
>> > And (this is the part we haven't tested, would be interested to hear from
>> > others if you have): the Google Places API should allow you to fetch
>> > today's hours. We're hoping to test and migrate from our current Google
>> > Calendar API setup in the next few months.
>>
>>
>>
>> Follow up: the Places API doesn't include exceptions to regular hours,
>> which was a dealbreaker for us, so we switched back to the standard Google
>> Calendar API.
>>
>> I had been very excited about this and we tried to follow up with the
>> Google Places team to request this feature, but we're not sure if this will
>> show up in the API.
>>
>> We're still updating the regular hours and notable exceptions in Google
>> Business, assuming that folks are relying on the card in Google search
>> rather than clicking through to our site.
>>
>> Alternate strategies welcome from the list - this is a pretty unsustainable
>> (and hopefully temporary) method.
>>
>> --
>> Erin White
>> Head, Digital Engagement, VCU Libraries
>> (804) 827-3552 | erwhite_at_vcu.edu | www.library.vcu.edu
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 1:50 PM, Tara Wood <wood19_at_uic.edu> wrote:
>>
>> > Hi Erin,
>> >
>> > Have you migrated yet to Google Business? Any advice (or tales of horror)
>> > you have from making the switch?
>> >
>> > Tara
>> >
>> > --
>> >
>> >
>> > Tara Wood
>> > Clinical Assistant Professor
>> > Web Services Librarian
>> > Digital Programs and Services
>> > University Library
>> > The University of Illinois at Chicago
>> > Richard J. Daley Library
>> > 801 South Morgan Street (MC234)
>> > Chicago, IL 60607
>> > (312)355-2051
>> > wood19_at_uic.edu
>> >
>>
>
>
>
>--
>
>Tara Wood
>Clinical Assistant Professor
>Web Services Librarian
>
>Digital Programs and Services
>University Library
>The University of Illinois at Chicago
>
>Richard J. Daley Library
>801 South Morgan Street (MC234)
>Chicago, IL 60607
>(312)355-2051
>wood19_at_uic.edu
>
>[image: U I C]
Received on Tue Oct 25 2016 - 16:52:10 EDT