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Resources in Brickyard Oracle Calendar: An Overview

One of the strengths of Oracle calendar is the ability to schedule resources; a resource being anything other than a person which has a schedule associated with it. Resources can include, but are not limited to:

  • A/V equipment
    • Projectors, document cameras, overheads)
    • Cameras
    • Podiums
    • Media players (DVD, VCR)
  • Rooms
    • Conference rooms
    • Classrooms or training rooms
    • Labs
    • Galleries
    • Groups study rooms
  • Vehicles
  • Research instruments
  • Computer / computer equipment
    • Peripherals
    • Cables
    • Input devices (mice, keyboards, joy sticks)
    • Network devices (wireless access point, switches)
    • Printers / carts
    • Laptops
    • Software
  • Parking (permits, spaces)
  • Sports equipment
  • Other
    • Coffee makers
    • Books
    • Equipment and supplies

Managing and Scheduling Resources

Resources may be scheduled in several ways, depending upon your units needs. However, the first step in setting up a resource is to assign an ‘owner’ to that resource. The owner will be given a username and password so that they can sign in as the resource. This allows the owner to:

  • Give viewing rights to the resource agenda
  • Give scheduling rights to the resource agenda
  • Give designate rights to the resource agenda
  • Change the password of the resource agenda

At NC State University, resource managers are chosen by the individual unit. While it is recommended that only 1 person have the resource username and password, it may be necessary to give it to another person or two to cover for absences by the original owner.

Once resources are in the system, there is flexibility in how they may be scheduled. A unit can choose:

  • To make the resource available for anyone with a Unity account to schedule
  • To ‘hide’ the resource’s agenda from public view and require others to request a reservation from a designate(s). Requests could come in via a form on the web, phone call, or however the unit chooses. The designate(s) then has the responsibility of scheduling its agenda
  • To allow others to view the resource’s agenda and request a reservation, but approval from the designate is required to confirm its availability for a specific use.

Naming Resources

To facilitate the scheduling of resources, the Calendar Policy Steering team has agreed upon the following formatted taxonomy for naming resources:

  • Owner/college_building_resource
  • Examples:
    • cod_lez_lab222 (College of Design Lab 222 in Leazar Hall)
    • pams_ha_vehicle54 (Physical and Mathematical Sciences Vehicle 54 assigned to Harrelson Hall)
    • itd_hlb_canonGL2 (Information Technology Divisions Canon GL2 camera stored in Hillsborough Building)

For official building abbreviations, please see NC State's Building index page.

To facilitate naming resources for the various extension offices throughout the state, the following naming convention should be used.

  • extension_county_resource
    • extension_newhanover_camera1 (New Hanover County Extension office - camera 1)

Suggested Guidelines for Resource Scheduling

At NC State, it is recommended that departments, colleges, or other units with resources to schedule develop clear guidelines and policies for the scheduling of resources which they control. Resource managers are encouraged to give particular consideration to the following:

  • Is it necessary or desirable to restrict the scheduling of a particular resource to only a few people? If so, it may be best to have reservation requests require approval from the resource designate.
  • If it is not necessary, it is much less work to allow others the right to schedule the resource themselves.
  • Consider whether you wish to grant viewing rights even if you don’t grant scheduling rights.

Regardless of the policies and/or guidelines that are implemented, it’s important that others in your unit understand these guidelines and understand how to schedule a resource. A clear, consistent approach with scheduling resources will cut down on confusion and possible scheduling errors.

Additional Information Concerning Resources

  • The person who creates the entry in a resource agenda ‘owns’ that entry (either as a designate or by inviting the resource to their meeting). Only the owner can edit or delete the entry – even designates of the resource cannot delete the entry if they did not create it. It’s important that if a resource is not needed that the resource’s agenda be freed up so that it is available once again for scheduling.
  • By default, resources cannot be double-booked; they are booked on a first-come, first-served basis. Currently node managers have the ability to change this default.  However, we encourage units to make sure they understand the implications of allowing double-booking before they change this default.
  • If your unit also has another method of scheduling resources (e.g., paper), we recommend that you phase out the other method and standardize on one version that is accessible and viewable by those that need it. 
  • If it would be helpful to the resource designates, they can be added to the list of those who receive email generated by Oracle calendar when people and resources are invited to a meeting.

For more detailed information on scheduling resources, ITD offers hands-on classes for both the Web and Desktop client as well as detailed documentation. Visit ITD’s schedule of workshops for more information: http://www.ncsu.edu/it/education/