Story time is not one Tuesday. It is 38 of them.
Catalogue the program once: the days it runs, the dates the branch is shut, and how many places there are. Every date then keeps its own list, and the count starts again each week.
STO
2026
Toddler Story Time
Tuesdays, 10:00 · Children's Room · ages 0 to 3
- Runs
- Tuesdays, from Sep 1
- Ends
- after 38 sessions
- Places
- 24, per date
- Not held
- 6 closed days
One record, filed on one sub-schedule. The others are the strands a patron can filter the calendar down to.
One card, one program
A catalogue card never got retyped for every loan.
Neither should a program. Everything a librarian would type on a card has a field on the record, and every line below is on the free plan.
Call number
The sub-schedule
Children, Teens, Adults, Seniors, Community. Each sub-schedule has a name and a colour, and a patron can filter the calendar down to one of them.
Main entry
The program itself
Name, description, an image, the branch address and a map drawn from it. Written once and it stands for every session.
Collation
The recurrence
Weekly on chosen days, every other week, or the same weekday each month. First Thursday book club is one setting, not twelve events.
Contents note
The running order
A workshop that is really four parts can list them, so patrons see the shape of the afternoon before they commit to it.
Tracings
Where else it appears
Attach the visiting author's own schedule and the program appears on their calendar as well as yours, the way one card generated a subject card and an author card.
Not yet catalogued
Drafts
A program you are still arranging sits on the calendar as a Draft, visible to you and never published until you say so.
The date-due slip
One record. A separate list for every date.
A place limit belongs to the program, but it is counted per date. Sep 8 filling up has nothing to do with Sep 22, and neither of them needs a second event.
- Sep 1 Tue full 24 places
- Sep 8 Tue 3 left 24 places
- Sep 15 Tue no session branch closed
- Sep 22 Tue 11 left 24 places
- Sep 29 Tue 19 left 24 places
- Oct 3 Sat · added 24 left 24 places
- Oct 6 Tue 24 left 24 places
Sep 15 has no stamp. That Tuesday the branch was closed, so a date exception took it out of the run and patrons never see a session there.
The days it runs
FreeTick the days of the week and set the time. Or every other week for a fortnightly club, or the same weekday each month for a first-Thursday book group.
The days you are shut
FreeDate exceptions take single dates out for a public holiday or a staff training day, and put single dates in for a half-term extra without a second program.
The end of the run
FreeA recurrence can stop on a date or after a set number of sessions. A school-year program that closes after 38 is not still on the calendar in August.
The places
FreeRegistration with a limit, counted per date, and the remaining count is shown to the patron as they sign up. Leave the limit off for a drop-in.
Change the time once and every remaining date follows. How recurring events work
The shelf list
A branch week, as a record.
Seven programs, four sub-schedules, one link. Six of these rows cost nothing.
| Program | Sub-schedule | When | Places | Sign-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toddler Story Time Children | Tuesdays, 10:00 | 24 | Free registration | |
| Lego Club Children | Wednesdays, 16:00 | 20 | Free registration | |
| Teen Coding Club Teens | Wednesdays, 16:30 | 12 | Free registration | |
| Book Club Adults | First Thursday, 19:00 | 15 | Free registration | |
| Tech Help Drop-in Seniors | Fridays, 13:00 | No limit | Just turn up | |
| Author Reading: Jane Ahmad Adults | Sat Oct 3, 19:00 | 90 | Tickets, $6 | |
| Local History Talk Adults | Not announced yet | 60 | Draft |
The Local History Talk is a Draft: on your calendar, not on the public one, until the speaker confirms. Sub-schedules colour-code and organise, so a Draft is how a program hides, not a strand.
The author reading charges $6, and the free plan still sells it: 25 paid tickets a month, no platform fee. Pro at $5 a month is what you buy when 90 seats will not fit inside 25. Everything free stays free: the free registration on the other four is not a trial.
The meeting room
Let the knitting group fill in a slip.
Turn on event requests and your schedule gets a public form. What arrives is a pending request, not a published event, so the community can ask for the room without anyone getting posting rights to your calendar.
- Requests land in an approval queue. You accept, decline, or edit the details first.
- Community groups that run their own schedule can be listed as pre-approved, so the regulars stop waiting on you.
- Event Schedule emails you when requests are waiting, so the queue is not something you have to remember to open.
- Requests and the queue are free. Extra questions on the form are a Pro plan feature.
One thing this is not: room booking. Event Schedule does not hold an inventory of rooms and will not warn you that two groups asked for the same afternoon. The queue is where you catch that, with your own eyes.
PEND
001
Riverside Knitting Circle
Thursdays, 18:30 · Meeting Room B
- Submitted by
- A patron, via your form
- Public now
- No
- Needs
- One click from you
Reaching patrons
The poster in the foyer only reaches people already inside.
Four ways out of the building, none of them an algorithm deciding who deserves to hear about Tuesday.
They follow you
FreeA patron follows your schedule and you have their name and email. That list is yours, it is visible only to your side of the calendar, and nobody rents it back to you.
You write to them
FreeNewsletters are yours to compose and send: the autumn program, a cancelled session, a new author date. Nothing goes out on its own, which is the point. 10 emails a month free, 100 on Pro, 1,000 on Enterprise, counted per recipient.
On the library website
FreeEmbed the calendar in the site you already have, and sync two ways with Google, Outlook or CalDAV. Worth knowing: a recurring program crosses to those calendars as a single entry, so it is the iCal feed, not the sync, that unrolls every Tuesday.
Into their own calendar
FreeEvery date has an iCal download, so a parent puts Tuesday 10:00 in the phone they actually check.
QR
What's on at the branch
Scan for every program, every date
Every schedule has a QR code you can download and print on a bookmark, a shelf label or the back of a receipt. It is on the free plan and it always points at your live calendar.
Free goes one step further still: embed the sign-up form itself, and a patron registers for Tuesday without ever leaving the library website.
Everything else
The rest of the drawer.
Which programs are actually being looked at
FreeThe built-in analytics show page views, the devices patrons are on, and where the traffic came from, per program and over time. Useful when the board asks whether the calendar is doing anything.
Worth saying plainly: that is what they measure. Attendance is what you count at the door, or what registration counted for you.
Next year's summer reading
FreeClone last year's program and change the dates. The description, the recurrence with its date exceptions, the venue and the place limit all come with it.
Photos from the craft table
FreePatrons add photos, video and comments to a program, and every submission waits in an approval queue. Free covers 25 photos per schedule, which matters when children are in them.
When a program costs money
FreeAn author evening, a paid workshop, a Friends of the Library fundraiser. Named ticket types with their own prices and quantities, sold through your own Stripe account on the free plan, up to 25 paid tickets a month, and Event Schedule takes zero platform fees: past Stripe's own processing, the money is yours.
Pro at $5 a month takes the 25 off and adds the desk work: extra questions at checkout for access needs or a child's age, a waitlist once a ticket type sells out, and a live count as patrons check in. Scanning the QR on a ticket is free on every plan; it is the running total that is Pro. Free registration for free programs needs none of it.
The poster for the noticeboard
ProGenerate one graphic from your upcoming programs, up to twenty of them, in a story, square, portrait or landscape crop. Only programs carrying their own flyer image appear, and printing the date on each is a setting, off until you turn it on.
Branches, staff logins and your own address
EnterpriseBeing honest about the shape of this: the free plan is one team member, so if two people need their own login you are looking at Enterprise, which allows up to five, and which also puts the calendar on your own domain.
A separate schedule per branch is free and unlimited, and plenty of library systems run one shared account per branch instead. Compare the plans
Perfect for all types of libraries
From a single branch to a university collection to a van with a route.
Public Libraries
Community programs, story times, workshops, and author events. Keep your neighborhood informed and engaged.
Learn moreUniversity Libraries
Lectures, research workshops, study sessions, and academic events. Reach students and faculty directly.
Learn moreCommunity Reading Rooms
Reading groups, literacy programs, and neighborhood book exchanges. Build a culture of reading.
Learn moreChildren's Libraries
Story times, crafts, summer reading programs, and educational events. Make reading fun for every child.
Learn moreArchive & Research Centers
Exhibitions, lectures, guided tours, and research workshops. Share your collections with the public.
Mobile Libraries
Bookmobile stops, pop-up reading events, and outreach programs. Bring the library to your community.
Learn moreThree steps
Catalogue the program
Sign up as a venue schedule, add the branch, and enter the program once: the days it runs, the sub-schedule it belongs to, and an end date or a number of sessions.
Take out the closed days
Add date exceptions for public holidays and training days, and add single extra dates for one-off sessions. Set up your sub-schedules for children, teens, adults and seniors.
Open the places
Turn on free registration with a place limit, embed the calendar on the library site, print the QR code, and email the patrons who follow you when there is news.
Key features
Free forever. Upgrade when you're ready.
Zero platform fees on ticket sales. You only pay Stripe's processing fee.
See all plansFrequently asked questions
What librarians ask before they move a program calendar across.
Is Event Schedule free for libraries?
Yes. Publishing your program calendar, setting programs up as recurring, organising them into sub-schedules, taking free registrations with a place limit, embedding the calendar on your library site, syncing two ways with Google, Outlook or CalDAV, and the built-in analytics are all free forever. Newsletters are free too, with 10 emails a month counted per recipient; Pro raises that to 100 and Enterprise to 1,000. Selling tickets for a paid program is free as well, up to 25 paid tickets a month, and Pro at $5 a month lifts that ceiling and adds the live check-in count at the door. Event Schedule charges zero platform fees on ticket sales, on every plan.
Can I manage story times, author events, and workshops together?
Yes. Sub-schedules organise one calendar into strands, so children's story times, teen clubs, adult talks and community meetings each sit on their own strand with their own colour, and a patron can filter the calendar down to just the strand they came for. To be exact about what a sub-schedule is: it organises and colour-codes, and it cannot hide anything. A program you are not ready to publish is a Draft instead.
How do patrons find out about library programs?
Four ways, and none of them is an algorithm. Patrons follow your schedule and you email them a newsletter when you have something to say. Your calendar embeds on the library website you already have. Every schedule has a downloadable QR code you can print on a bookmark, a poster or a shelf label. And each date has an iCal download so it lands in the patron's own calendar. Being straight about the newsletter: nothing is sent automatically when you add a program, because you decide when to write and what goes in it.
Can patrons register for programs?
Yes, on the free plan. Turn on registration and set a place limit, and the limit is counted separately for every date, so this Tuesday filling up does not close next Tuesday. Patrons get a confirmation email with their own link. For a paid program, connect Stripe and sell named ticket types on the free plan too, up to 25 paid tickets a month, with zero platform fees past Stripe's own processing. Pro at $5 a month takes the 25 off.
What happens on the weeks the branch is closed?
You add a date exception and that date comes out of the run, so patrons simply do not see a session that day. Exceptions work the other way too: add a single extra date for a half-term session without setting up a second program. A recurrence can also be told to stop, either on a date or after a set number of sessions, so a school-year program is not still listed in August.
Can community groups ask to use the meeting room?
Yes. Turn on event requests and your schedule gets a public form. A submission arrives as a pending request rather than a published event, you approve or decline it, and you can keep a list of schedules whose submissions are approved without review. Requests are free, and so is the approval queue.
Can the whole staff have logins?
Not on the free plan, which is one team member. Multiple team members, up to five, are an Enterprise feature at $15 a month, along with custom domains. Plenty of branches run the whole calendar from one shared account, so it is worth knowing which you need before you pay for it.
Free forever
Catalogue it once. Check it out all year.
Your program calendar, recurring sessions, free registration with a place limit, and a newsletter to the patrons who follow you. All of it free, with no card.
No credit card required