Access dB Woes

So, just for fun (sarcasm) I decided to see if I could improve a process at work.
I am in charge of updating a file that tracks the On Call techs for a variety of different departments each week. As it is, each department has a schedule for the year, and I access each individual schedule to import the current weeks data to a "Master" file that my department uses during "After Hours".
So my desire is to automate the process so that the current weeks on call information is automatically called up when the file is accessed. I know this is possible, I just don't know how...so I was playing in Access hoping to get a better feel for how to make it work, but I have no real knowledge of Database structure outside of a very basic understand that the Data is stored in Tables, etc...
So, after dinking around in Access for about an hour I have come to the conclusion that I want a cheeseburger...