Online Appointment-Scheduling for Optimizing a High Volume of Research Consultations

Abstract

Librarians at Penn State University piloted the online appointment-scheduling tool YouCanBook.me to determine its effectiveness in facilitating a high number of research consultations and improving an embedded service model. Librarians sought to leverage the tool to work with as many students as possible while balancing other duties. This article details using YouCanBook.me for this specific application, provides data and evaluation of the pilot, and explores possibilities for scaling usage of this scheduling tool in other library settings, both large and small.