Getting Started

Once you're familiar with the concepts in the Overview and Activity List sections of this support page, it's time to enter your data into the main database tables.

If you have some or all of your equipment, patrons, and locations already in a spreadsheet or database, email your data to tim@avscheduler.com and I will import the data for you. You should still be familiar with how the data is stored for when you need to edit and add new data.

Patron Setup

Found under Manage -> Patron Setup -> Show All Patrons

This lists the last and first names of all of your Patrons. Feel free to include every administrator, teacher, and support staff member in your building; or, just add the people you regularly make deliveries to. You can always add more Patrons later.

Click [Add a New Patron]. A new patron has been added. If you do nothing more, an empty Patron will exist in your system.

Click the boxes that say [None] to edit any or all of the attributes of your new Patron. None of the attributes is required, but some (marked important below) should be filled in right away.

Attributes for Patrons include:

Last Name - important

First Name - important

Department

Title

Notes

E-Mail Address - important - used to send confirmation email when you place a reservation in their name. Include the full address.

Location Setup

Found under Manage -> Location Setup -> Show All Locations

This lists the Room Number and Location Name of all of your Locations. Feel free to include every Location in your building; or, just add the Locations you regularly make deliveries to. You can always add more Locations later.

Click [Add a New Location]. A new Location has been added. If you do nothing more, an empty Location will exist in your system.

Click the boxes that say [None] to edit any or all of the attributes of your new Location. None of the attributes is required, but some (marked important below) should be filled in right away.

Attributes for Locations include:

Number - important - normally the Room Number; BUT, you can either leave this blank or make up a Number for gathering locations that may not be numbered (atriums, football stadium, etc.)

Name - important - usually something like "Classroom" or "Conference Room" or "Office"

Departments

Key

Inventoried

Floor - ignore for now

Building ID - important - if this is not already set to a number other than 0, contact Tim@AVScheduler.com

Equipment Setup

AV Codes

Before we get into adding equipment, let's cover AVScheduler's concept of AV Codes.

Every piece of equipment in your inventory probably has a number identifying it in one way or another. For example, if you have 50 overhead transparency projectors, they may be numbered 1-50. If yours is an older school, you have probably withdrawn some of the older projectors, so some numbers may not even be used anymore.

However, if you simply give Overhead Transparency Projector #20 an AV Code of "20", there are certain features of AVScheduler that won't know if you're talking about Overhead 20, VCR 20, or Boombox 20.

Because of this, we suggest that all of your AV Codes be short and unique. For example, Overhead Transparency Projector 20 might have an AV Code of "OTP 020", and Television 20 might have an AV Code of "TV 020". "OH 020" (OverHead 20), "OHP 020" (OverHead Projector) are acceptable variants.

Notice that we used 3 digits for the number part of the AV Code - this is not mandatory, but helps put the AV Codes in proper numerical order. Otherwise, "OTP 20" would be placed between "OTP 199" and "OTP 200". We also recommend putting a space between the letters and the numbers for readability.

Example Ideal AV Code Numbering: OTP 020 = unique 2 or 3 letter code for each equipment type + space + 3-digit number

Alternate AV Code Numbering examples: OTP20, OTP 20, OTP020, 20OTP, 20/OTP, etc.

Although we recommend the Ideal AV Code numbering system, if this is a large departure from the way you currently label your equipment, or you feel that this may confuse your staff, feel free to use an alternate numbering system.

Barcodes

If your school uses unique barcodes for every piece of equipment, you may use those instead. If you also have a system resembling the AV Codes, choose those codes over barcodes. When it comes time to check out equipment, we find it much easier to enter "tv1" instead of "342209".

How AVScheduler Organizes Equipment

Unlike Patrons and Locations, every piece of Equipment is organized into Equipment Types, then into Equipment Groups.

Example Group, Type, and Equipment setup

Equipment Groups	Equipment Types	Pieces of Equipment
Video	VCR	VCR 001, VCR 002, VCR 003, etc.
	TV	TV 001, TV 002, TV 003, etc.
	Camcorder	CAM 001, CAM 002, CAM 003, etc.
Audio	Cassette Recorder	CAS 001, CAS 002, CAS 003, etc.
	CD/Cassette Boombox	CD 001, CD 002, CD 003, etc.
	Microphone	MIC 001, MIC 002, MIC 003, etc.

Equipment Groups

Found under Manage -> Location Setup -> Show All Equipment Groups and Types

After clicking Show All Equipment Groups and Types... you will see a number of already-defined Equipment Groups, including Video, Audio, Computer, General, and Accessory. These are suggested Equipment Groups. You may rename or delete them as you wish, and you can add more Equipment Groups as needed.

Equipment Types

Underneath each Equipment Group you will see a few already-defined Equipment Types. For example, the Video Equipment Group should have a Television Equipment Type and a VCR Equipment Type.

Under the Video Equipment Group, click [Add a New Equipment Type to this Group].

Click the boxes that say [None] to edit any or all of the attributes of your new Equipment Type. For example, create a Camcorder Equipment Type by setting both the Long Name and Short Name to Camcorder.

Attributes for Equipment Types include:

Long Name - important - the actual name of the group, such as Television (don't use plural here)

Short Name - important - an abbreviated name, such as TV. The Short Name and Long Name can be the same.

AV Code - optional - If all the pieces of equipment in your group share the same letter prefix, you can include it here as a reminder. If you do not use letter prefixes for your equipment, leave this blank for now.

Individual pieces of Equipment

Next to the Television Equipment Group, click the 2 Pieces... link. Much like the Patron List and Location List, you can edit the main attributes of each piece of Equipment by clicking any of the AV Code, Make, Model, or Serial Number boxes. Click the Details... link to see all attributes.

Click the boxes to edit any or all of the attributes of your Equipment. None of the attributes is required, but some (marked important below) should be filled in right away. Make, Model, and Serial Number are important, but do not have to be filled in right away to get started.

Some of the Equipment attributes are necessary for certain AV Scheduler functions to work, but many attributes are optional and are there for your convenience. For example, you may find the Initial Cost and Purchased From attributes useful when it comes time to purchase more equipment, but they certainly don't have to be used.

Attributes for Equipment include:

AV Code	important	this should be a unique and easily identifiable code for your piece of equipment, for example: TV 001, VCR 020, MIC 044, CART 237. This could also be a barcode if you don't have AV Codes, such as 123456. If you enter a non-unique number like "14", the AVScheduler will not know if you mean TV 14 or VCR 14 for certain features.
In Circulation?	Initially set to True	Set this to False if you withdraw equipment but wish to keep a record of it.
Location	optional	this is the location where the Equipment is usually kept when not in use. This is probably an AV storage room of some kind, but could also be a room number for a wall-mounted television, for example. The Location becomes important when Equipment Units are created (more on that later).
Status	optional	I usually leave this blank unless there is some unusual circumstance with the Equipment, for example "withdrawn" or "on repair", etc.
Employee	optional	who saw this last? I don't fill this in every time I actually see the equipment, but I do usually fill it in when taking inventory, or if the piece of equipment needs repair.
Date Last Seen	optional	when did they see it last? See note for Employee attribute.
Equipment Type	important	This is already set when you created the Equipment, but you can change it if needed.
Make	important	Sony, Panasonic, 3M, etc.
Model	important	DVD-V3500, CT2784VY, etc.
Serial Number	important
PO Number	optional	what PO was used for the purchase?
Initial Cost	optional	how much did it cost?
Purchased From	optional	what vendor was used?
Date Received	optional	when did it arrive? Or - when was it manufactured (if there's a sticker on the back)
Lamp Code	optional	ENX, FXL, etc. For a dual lamp changer, I usually enter FXL FXL, etc.
Remote Model Number	optional	useful for reordering of one-of-a-kind remotes
Accessories	optional	carry case, cables, remote, etc.
Comments	optional	anything that doesn't fit in the above attributes - "repaired on 8/4/05", "purchased by Science department", etc.
AutoReservePriority	Initially set to 1	used when automatically assigning Equipment during a Reservation.

Equipment Units

Equipment Units are used as shortcuts for groups of Equipment that are usually delivered together, and are completely optional. When it comes time to assign Equipment to an Activity, you can use the Equipment Unit in lieu of the individual pieces of Equipment.

For example, instead of assigning a television, a VCR, a DVD player, and an AV cart to an Activity, you can just assign the Equipment Unit.

Instead of TV 050, VCR 114, DVD 022, CART 200, create a Video Unit (call it VU 001) that contains those 4 pieces, and just assign VU 001 to the Activity.

Common Equipment Units might include:

TV + VCR + AV Cart

TV + DVD + AV Cart

TV + Laserdisc Player + AV Cart

Overhead Transparency Projector + AV Cart

LCD Projector + VCR + AV Cart + Speaker + VGA Splitter, etc...

In the AVScheduler database, Equipment Units themselves are actual pieces of Equipment. A piece of Equipment becomes a Unit as soon as it appears in the Location field of at least one other piece of Equipment.

Creating the Equipment Units

For a Video Unit, you can create a new Equipment Type called Video Units. You can create this new Type under the Video Equipment Group, or you can create a whole new Equipment Group just for Equipment Units.

Then, create one or more pieces of Equipment under the Video Unit Equipment Type. Use "VU 001", "VU 002", "VU 003", etc. as the AV Codes.

Assigning pieces of Equipment to Equipment Units

Under Manage --> Equipment Setup --> Equipment Unit Setup --> Assign Equipment to a Unit, you can put the AV Code of the individual piece of Equipment in the first box, and the Equipment Unit AV Code in the second box, and click Assign.