Shared Calendars

PBS Knowledge includes shared calendars for the department — office hours, lab meetings, committee schedules, and room or equipment bookings — with fine-grained permissions and iCal subscription links so events show up in the calendar app you already use.

Calendar Types

Each calendar has a type that determines its purpose and default access:

Type	Typical Use	Default Access
Department	Department-wide events	Everyone can view; admins manage
Faculty	A faculty member's office hours, etc.	Logged-in users can view
Committee	Committee meeting schedules	Logged-in users can view
Room Booking	Reserving shared rooms	Logged-in users can book; admins manage
Resource/Equipment	Reserving shared equipment	Logged-in users can book; admins manage

Creating a Calendar

Admins and faculty can create calendars:

1. Navigate to Calendars from the main menu
2. Click New Calendar
3. Fill in:
   • Calendar Name (e.g., "Office Hours", "Lab Meetings")
   • Calendar Type (see table above)
   • Description (optional)
4. Save

The new calendar starts active, visible to logged-in users, with sensible default permissions for its type. An iCal feed link is generated automatically.

Managing a Calendar

If you have manage access to a calendar, a Settings button appears in the calendar sidebar. From Settings you can:

• Edit the name and description
• Set a color for the calendar's events
• Change visibility: public (no login required), authenticated (any logged-in user), or private (specific people only)
• Activate or deactivate the calendar
• Manage permissions (below)

Deleting a calendar (and all of its events) is an admin-only operation.

Permissions

Each calendar grants one of three permission levels:

Level	What it allows
Read	View the calendar and its events
Write	Create events and edit your own events
Manage	Everything: edit settings, edit any event, set permissions

Permissions can be granted to:

• An individual person
• A group (e.g., a committee)
• A role (e.g., all admins)
• Authenticated — every logged-in user
• Everyone — public, no login required

Calendar managers add or remove permissions from Settings → Permissions by choosing who (person, group, role, authenticated, everyone) and the level (read, write, manage).

Events

Creating an Event

With write access, click Add Event (or click a date on the calendar) and fill in:

• Title, Start Time, End Time (required)
• All-day toggle
• Description
• Location/Resource — pick a bookable room or resource; the system checks for time conflicts and rejects double-bookings
• Attendees
• Status — confirmed, tentative, or cancelled
• Recurrence — for repeating events

Editing and Deleting

You can edit or delete events you created (with write access). Calendar managers can edit or delete any event on the calendar.

Room and Resource Booking

When an event references a bookable resource, the system prevents overlapping reservations — if the time slot conflicts with an existing booking, you'll see an error identifying the conflicting event. Zoom Room resources additionally sync a Zoom reservation automatically.

My Events

With no specific calendar selected, the page shows your events across all calendars — anything you created or where you're listed as an attendee.

Subscribing from Your Calendar App (iCal)

Every calendar has a private subscription feed you can add to Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Outlook, or any app that supports the iCalendar (ICS) standard:

1. Select the calendar in the sidebar
2. Click Subscribe
3. Copy the subscription link from the dialog
4. In your calendar app, choose "Add calendar by URL" (or similar) and paste the link

The feed updates automatically as events change. The link contains a private token, so treat it like a password — anyone with the link can read the calendar's events.

Tips

• Color-code your calendars in Settings so events are easy to distinguish at a glance.
• Use a Room Booking calendar for any shared space — conflict checking does the scheduling negotiation for you.
• If you can see a calendar but can't add events, you have read-only access; ask a calendar manager for write access.