Collaborative Scheduling

Local coordinators are responsible for scheduling, both of their own service providers within their institutions and their institutions within the overall AskAway collaborative schedule. Coordinators work with the Admin Centre to assign their institutions to shifts that best fit their needs, and they work with other institutions to ensure that the schedule meets the needs of the service and its participating libraries.

Scheduling process

For scheduling purposes, the year is divided up into four sections:

  • Section 1 (September-December)
  • Section 2 (January-April)
  • Section 3 (May-June)
  • Section 4 (July-August)

Typically, two months before the section begins, the schedule will be set (for example, if Section 1 starts on September 17th the scheduling process will begin mid-July). To set the schedule for each AskAway section, the Admin Centre and local coordinators follow this process:

  1. The Admin Centre creates the draft schedule in a shared Google spreadsheet
    • The draft schedule is based on the previous schedule for that section or a similar section:
      • Section 1: based on most recent Section 2 schedule
      • Section 2: based on most recent Section 1 schedule
      • Section 3: based on most recent Section 3 schedule
      • Section 4: based on most recent Section 4 schedule
  2. Local coordinators are notified via email and a deadline for changes (typically two weeks) is set
  3. Local coordinators review their shifts in the draft schedule
    • Institutions have the option to trade shifts with other institutions as necessary
    • Institutions also have the option to move into any open shifts
  4. Institutions that are unable to arrange trades notify the Admin Centre
  5. After the deadline, the schedule is finalized, uploaded to the AskAway website, and shared with local coordinators for final review

Note: One-off shift trades among service providers continue to be arranged through the listservs as always. The scheduling process above is only used to set-up term schedules.

Schedules

Current, past, and future schedules are available on the AskAway website: