To facilitate access to shared resources and optimize their use, our program adopted LibreBooking in 2025 as a centralized reservation platform. This initiative is part of an ongoing effort to improve the infrastructure and services offered to the research community.

The platform can be accessed at the following address: booking.idigh.ca.

A Platform Designed for Laboratory Needs

The implementation of LibreBooking follows a series of consultations conducted with the program’s laboratories by Eric Béliveau and Vicky Barrera during the summer of 2025. These discussions helped document operational constraints, usage habits, and specific needs for each team.

As a result, the platform was configured based on real-world requirements rather than a one-size-fits-all model. This collaborative approach makes it possible to tailor booking procedures to laboratory needs, whether regarding equipment access conditions, technical specifications, or workspace organization.

LibreBooking also allows teams to manage bookings for their own equipment within their research group, without making all of these reservations visible to every member of the program. Larger teams particularly appreciate this flexibility.

 

Détails et configuration d'une ressource.
Resource details and configuration   
QR Code
On-site QR codes allow for quick resource booking.

Features and Flexibility

Thanks to its extensive configuration options, LibreBooking makes it possible to adapt booking terms to the specific characteristics of each resource and the needs of individual laboratories.

  • Availability Management: Setting reservation durations, time slots, and capacity limits for shared spaces based on the characteristics of each resource.

  • Schedule Visibility and Booking Tracking: Centralized calendar viewing to simplify planning, minimize booking conflicts, and quickly check the availability of equipment and workspaces.

  • Real-Time Dashboards: Utilizing LibreBooking’s API to integrate booking data into custom dashboards. This integration allows for a quick overview of resource status, availability, and active bookings, streamlining operational tracking for shared equipment and spaces.

  • Maintenance Management: Scheduling technical interventions, locking out resources during maintenance windows, and sending automated notifications to affected users.

  • Documentation and Usage Guidelines: Adding resource-specific notes, guidelines, and instructions that can be automatically emailed to users upon booking.

  • Access Rights Control: Restricting access to specific resources to authorized personnel (for example, only after completing required training for a piece of equipment).

  • Simplified Sign-Up: Ability to register using a McGill email account without creating a separate password, depending on system configuration.

By centralizing booking management while honoring the specific needs of each lab, LibreBooking contributes to a more efficient, transparent, and secure use of the program's research resources.

 

Horaire des resources.
Resource Schedule   
Annonces
Equipment Announcements   
Préférences des notifications
Email Notification Preferences
Dashboard
An example of a dashboard created using data accessible via the API.
Dashboard
Another example of a dashboard using the API.

An Open-Source, Collaborative, and Evolving Platform

LibreBooking is open-source software, which provides major advantages to our community: code transparency, no licensing fees, high flexibility for adaptation, and independence from a single vendor. This collaborative nature enables the community of users and developers to continuously evolve the tool to match the actual needs of the research environment.

To help improve the platform, bug reports and suggestions can be submitted directly on the project's official GitHub page: github.com/LibreBooking/librebooking.