[Michlib-l] Room Reservation Software Compiled Responses

[Devin Erlandson]

I am placing the responses in the body of the email rather than an
attachment for those who get the digest version of the list. Results were
fairly mixed. Before sending my questions out I was leaning towards LibCal
and I think that's where I'm still leaning.

Thanks for responding!

Room Reservation Software Responses

Google Calendar – 3
Plymouth Rocket – 2
LibCal – 3
Evanced - 3

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Currently, we just use Google Calendars and differentiate between different
rooms with different colors.

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We use Plymouth Rocket's room reservation/events calendar package at Peter
White Public Library in Marquette. (www.pwpl.info)  They are OK, but I am
not a fan.  I think the company lacks a designer/programming with a strong
sense of visual aesthetic.  The fee structure is also annoying as it's not
set up for an unlimited number of room reservations.

I had set up a free events calendar plugin that I liked better but had to
abandon as the functionality of having the calendar tied to the room
reservation couldn't be denied, and the plymouth rocket room reservation
isn't available without the calendar.  It was the most affordable that
offered all the functionality we needed at the time.

We have a rather complicated room reservation policy that involves some
equipment reservation and some fees for some rooms and not others.  So
first thing I would advise would be to establish a simple room reservation
policy.

There is a free library-specific room reservation wordpress plug-in called
Book A Room that I was intrigued by.  It was very new when I was doing my
research a couple of years ago, and I didn't have the coding background to
adjust it to my needs.  I think it has undergone modification and
improvement since then.  Worth a look.

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We used to use Evanced Spaces (which was a nightmare) and now we use
LibCal. We have 9 study rooms that are in constant use and I like that
LibCal lets you see at a glance what is available and when. I also prefer
LibCal's "self service" room booking feature to Evanced's. LibCal is also
WAY cheaper than Spaces.

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At the last three libraries I worked at, Evanced was the preferred software
of choice. We had a separate "Event Type" for Private/Patron Reservation
and placed patron contact info in the "Internal Notes" field along with any
other pertinent info, like who approved the reservation, when it was
booked, and what number of reservation it was (one of my libraries had to
limit the number of reservations per month because people were abusing the
system).

At my current library, we use the Google sharepoint calendar for room
reservations, but it can be quite tedious juggling separate room
reservation and program calendars for the same room.

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We use Spaces from Demco, and it's been working well. We also use Signup
for our events calendar, and the two work together so we don't double-book
any rooms. Very convenient, and our patrons like being able to reserve
rooms and register for programs online. Hope that helps!

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Attached is Dexter's meeting room use material.  The reservation form is
for our larger space which is a 300 capacity meeting room on the lower
level which can be split into two smaller rooms.  We just use Google
calendar for scheduling.

The third document is for our 1-4 person group study rooms.  We have three
of these rooms.  Scheduling is on a separate Google calendar managed by
adult ref staff.

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I've used Evanced at a previous library (now a Demco product:
https://www.demcosoftware.com/products/spaces/)

Good software in my experience. Kind of costly...

We use Plymouth Rocket now. Can't say I would recommend it based on user
experience, but cost is low...

I've only used Plymouth Rocket in small doses, I'm hiring a new admin
assist right now...so more than usual. Reporting flexibility is my biggest
complaint about the product.

But, I was in on all the Evanced setup. There are so many options it can be
a bit intimidating. And, you can get just about any report you can dream
up!

But, really most of this decision will come down to how much you can spend.
If we had some extra cash, I'd go back to Evanced/Spaces in a heartbeat.

But, there are other funding priorities for us right now.

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Here at Herrick we recently switched to LibCal for our calendar and room
reservation system (
https://libcal.herrickdl.org/calendar?cid=7016&t=m&d=0000-00-00&cal=7016).
I'm not sure about cost, but the end user experience is very good. I know
it was less expensive than we thought it would be. We use it to schedule 1
auditorium, 2 meeting rooms, and 3 study rooms, all of which have different
rules governing when they can be reserved and for how long. The software
handles all of that for us. It also auto-populates reservations onto our
calendar. If you would like more information, let me know!

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We are using LibCal from Springshare for both our Room Reservations and
Calendaring for Events.  We are very happy with it.  We have found them to
be very responsive and the price was very affordable compared to other
products on the market.  We had almost given up on finding a product that
would suit our needs.  We were looking into building something custom.
LibCal did a huge update of their product and added almost everything we
wanted.


-- 
Devin Erlandson, MLIS (she/her)
Assistant Director
Allegan District Library
269-673-4625
alleganlibrary.org
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