[lm-announce] DeltaVision bookings

[Samuel Swift]

Dear All,

Some of you have reported that it can take a long time to get a booking on the DeltaVision microscopes.  We are going through a particularly busy period at present, but there are some common sense things you can all do to efficiently manage time on these microscopes.  I would encourage you to consider the following so that we can avoid a scenario where we have to allocate time to individuals or prescribe which microscope you use for an experiment; a central aim of the facility is to provide open access to research staff and we hope to continue to provide this access arrangement now and in the future.

1.  Please make sure you book only the time you need and that you actually turn up for your session.

2.  If you do not need the microscope you've booked, cancel your booking as soon as you can.

3.  Consider using a different microscope - although the configuration of the DeltaVisions varies, most experiments can be run on most microscopes.  If you are in any doubt, you will find a configuration table at the front of every log book and we can advise you about which microscope will do the job.  Most of the microscopes are identical, but if you want a hand getting started on a microscope you haven't used before, just let us know and we'll be more than happy to help you.

4.  Don't book "all day events" on the calendar.  Other users have no idea what this really means.  If you currently have an all day event booked, I'd be grateful if you could amend your booking.

5.  Try to book time in a way that enables other people to use the microscope on the same day.  e.g. if 4 people need 2 hours each, this can easily be accommodated in regular working hours if your sessions run 9-11, 11-1, 1-3 and 3 -5.  Starting at 10.30 am and booking an extra half hour to be on the safe side actually has quite a big knock on effect.

6.  Check the calendar regularly; sessions do get cancelled and space does become available.

7.  If you are running a long time lapse (e.g. 48 hours) consider whether you can set this running on e.g. Friday evening rather than Wednesday afternoon.

8.  Once you book a microscope, double check that you booked the time you intended to.  The booking system asks for a start time and duration, so (to use a recent example) if you want to work from 11-2, you would select 11:00 as your start time and 3 hours 00 min duration.  It's easy to accidentally enter a finish time by mistake (in this case 14:00) which means you book the microscope for 14 hours and appear to not have turned up for your session.  Oops!

We are in the process of organising a "cancelled bookings" mailing list (the migration to the new email system is hampering this at the moment) so that you can keep each other up to date when you cancel a session.  I'll let you know when this has been set up.

Many thanks!
Sam











The University of Dundee is a registered Scottish Charity, No: SC015096
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