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I've had my eye on Google My Business [1] recently.

You can claim your library's location with a snail-mail postcard
verification process, then 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 [2] should allow you to fetch
today's hours based on that data. We're hoping to test and migrate from our
current Google Calendar API setup in the next few months.

Now that google search results for the library location display open hours,
though, I'm not sure how many folks are actually clicking through to verify
our hours anyway. The horror!


[1] https://www.google.com/business/
[2] https://developers.google.com/places/

--
Erin White
Web Systems Librarian, VCU Libraries
(804) 827-3552 | [log in to unmask] | www.library.vcu.edu

On Thu, Jul 7, 2016 at 1:02 PM, Heather Rayl <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> We use a custom javascript with a giant array. The script first tests to
> determine the month and date, and it also tests for the day of the week. We
> have two lines that have the "regular" hours -- one set for fall and spring
> semester and one set for summer, and then we write "exceptions" for each
> day that is different. if it's not one of the exceptions, then it lists the
> regular hours. Although it sounds cumbersome, it doesn't really take that
> long to update it, and you only have to update it twice -- once at the
> beginning of summer to comment out the regular fall/spring hours, and once
> at the end of the summer to comment out the regular summer hours. Around
> this time, we also update the exceptions for the upcoming year.
>
> I'd be happy to share the code with anyone who would like it.
>
> On Thu, Jul 7, 2016 at 12:42 PM, Ketner, Kenny <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > At Texas Tech University Libraries, our solution for over 12 years has
> > been Google Calendar along with a custom PHP script with MySQL database
> > backend. Every summer our circ staff creates the next calendar year's
> hours
> > in a spreadsheet; this is imported into Google Calendar and also ingested
> > into our MySQL database. The purpose of the PHP script is to provide
> quick
> > information to web pages about the current day's hours, and the Google
> > Calendar gives a look-ahead for future hours and library events.
> >
> >
> > Kenny Ketner
> > Software Development Manager
> > Texas Tech University Libraries
> > [log in to unmask]
> > 806-773-5323
> > Strategic - Ideation - Connectedness - Relator - Learner
> >
> > ________________________________________
> > From: Code for Libraries [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of
> > Katherine N. Deibel [[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2016 11:20 AM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Hours on Library Websites?
> >
> > Hi Matt,
> >
> > Coincidentally enough, UW is currently looking at how to easily and
> > centrally distribute hours information to our website (and potentially
> some
> > other campus web apps). We're looking at LibCal but also considering
> > rolling our own with some harvesting through the Alma Hours API. LibCal's
> > REST API is still in development and has a limitations that we've
> noticed:
> >
> > * Can only request times from today to the future. We'd have to cache
> > older results if we wanted to display them
> >
> > * Can only show up to one year in advance (we sometimes need to show a
> > full schedule fro 15 months)
> >
> > * Identifiers for locations and sublocations is an ID number, so you'd
> > have to write a mapping if you want others to use it easily.
> >
> > * Given our large number of libraries and sublocations within them, we'd
> > really like to be able to set hours relative to the "containing" library.
> >
> > We're still debating as you can guess, but the basic gist I've gotten is
> > that if you want to use LibCal, you're going to probably write some
> > intermediary JavaScript to make your life easier.
> >
> > --
> >
> > Kate Deibel, PhD | Web Applications Specialist
> > Information Technology Services
> > University of Washington Libraries
> > http://staff.washington.edu/deibel
> >
> > --
> >
> > "When Thor shows up, it's always deus ex machina."
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> > Matt Sherman
> > Sent: Thursday, July 7, 2016 7:34 AM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: [CODE4LIB] Hours on Library Websites?
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > We are working on a website migration/redesign into WordPress and I am
> > trying to figure out an automated solution for posting and keeping up to
> > date the hours on the home page.  I am wondering, how do other
> institutions
> > manage this?  Are there any good tools I should be looking into?  Any
> > insights or suggestions are appreciated.
> >
> > Matt Sherman
> >
>