Cell
Biology Microscopy Suite Operating Policy
A responsible and courteous approach to the operation, cleaning & reserving of resources and to other users of the facility is expected. The scheduling calendars publicly displays users' contact information to help with scheduling and coordinated powering down of the equipment as well as possible notification to users of unscheduled instrument downtimes.
General:
• Only users who have completed the introductory training for each resource from Dr Oliver may operate equipment and reserve instrument time. The instruments are only available to Cell Biology primary and secondary appointment faculty and their immediate lab members, except by special arrangement with Dr Oliver.
• Users must use only their assigned Windows account on the computers at each workstation and must not share their login and password with others.
• Unauthorized use of another user's account may result in the user being barred from the facility and having the account disabled.
• After hours access to the facility is available only to trained users. Please see Dr Oliver to have your ID card activated for the facility door lock.
• Entry doors are to be kept closed when no users are present in the facility, especially at the end of the day and at weekends.
• Users must notify Dr Oliver about viable pathogens or biohazards before they are brought into the facility.
• Users must not install software on facility computers.
Training:
Each user needs individual training from Dr Oliver. That training is personalized to the specific trainee's biological question. However, from 10-21-04 onwards, a waiver to the hourly charges will be made for the training of graduate students and postdocs associated with labs of primary and secondary appointment PIs in the Cell Biology Department. Training will, wherever possible, generate usable data for the PI. Training includes a minimum of background optics theory essential for the operator to make informed decisions about necessary instrumental parameters and essential settings on the microscope. Training can typically be expected to occupy two 3hr sessions of one-on-one instruction, but may be more or less time, depending on the comfort level of the trainee and the complexity of the task. It is incumbent on the trainee to follow up the supervised instrument training with independent self study time, sufficient to reinforce the training experience and become competent and confident enough to work unsupervised.
Instrument Scheduling:
• Instrumentation may be reserved using the online scheduling calendars
In order to use the on-line scheduling calendar you will need a password. See Dr. Oliver or Mark Langan to arrange this. In order to make an instrument reservation, you will be required to enter your personal contact information which will be displayed publicly on the website. This information is posted primarily to facilitate user exchanges and encourage a positive interaction between the fifty or so current account holders.
• “Walk in reservations” (ie. short notice usage by qualified users) are permitted and encouraged. Please enter your details in the appropriate booking calendar immediately, so that others can determine that the resource is being used.
• The on line booking calendar is the arbiter of who has right of occupancy of the resource.
Please be reasonable when estimating time built into your reservation. At the current time you can reserve as much time as you reasonably need, but this practice may change as patterns of demand on the instrumentation change. Despite this, be aware that these instruments are costly to maintain. Your PI will only be required to pay for the time that you actually spend at the instrument, which you are required to log, together with a valid Duke charge code, on the instrument's clipboard log under an "honor" system. Account summaries for each PI are prepared and charged automatically on a monthly basis by the department’s administrative staff.
Finishing Up:
• Lower lens turret and wipe off lenses and objective bodies withQ-tips (never Kim Wipes) before leaving.
• Log off computer workstations when finished. Usage charges will continue to be incurred if you do not.
• Power down system components appropriately and log out in a timely manner at the end of your session, in consideration of the next confirmed user's arrival time.
• The last user that is, or was, booked for the day is responsible for ensuring that the system is powered down.
• Withdrawing a pre-posted reservation from the scheduling calendar does not absolve that individual the responsibility of ensuring that the booked system is subsequently shut down. If you are off site please call the facility to make sure equipment will otherwise be powered down, otherwise if you were posted as “last user” you must go to the facility to ensure equipment is shut down overnight.
• Please notify Dr Oliver of breakages or malfunctions, no matter how trivial they may seem.
• Failures, accidents, and even mistakes do happen. Notification of problems expedites repairs, and we would rather know about incidents promptly.
• Make sure entire area is clean before leaving.
• Biohazards and other toxic waste must be properly disposed of by removal from the facility. Please plan to back up your data and be off the instrument in good time for the next user.
File Storage Policy:
• You alone are responsible for your image and data files. Backups of user files are not made for users, except by individual users themselves. On most workstation computers, files will self-erase after a period of time. This janitorial software is activated on a revolving 24 hr cycle, searching for files older than 2 weeks. Files not removed after this time are subject to unscheduled erasure.
• Users must not install any software on any facility machine. Please let us know about software requirements.
No show Policy:
• Users not appearing within 10 minutes of their assigned reservation start time will be deemed "no-shows" and forfeit their right to that slot if someone else decides to take it. In addition, a log entry will be made for the total time reserved for that no-show session, with the users name and the words "no-show." The PI will be charged for this time.
Hourly
rates for instrumentation:
• The current rates
are posted here.
last updated
06-17-09
