Videoconferencing for Reference Service

[Grace Agnew]

I am cross-posting this to several lists.  Please excuse any 
inconvenience due to duplication.

My library is looking at the possibliity of adding a videoconferencing 
component to its windows-based PAC GUI. With the addition of our web 
server, the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library now offers more than one 
hundred  (mostly full-text) databases via its PAC.  We are looking at 
the addition of videoconferencing to provide expert remote assistance, in 
utilizing databases but also for general reference, primarily at kiosks, 
special service centers (such as senior citizen 
high rises) and at smaller branches without on-site reference staff.

We tests PictureTel's PCS100 system and found that the videoconferencing 
window worked extremely well 
if we are simply allowing the two functionalities to co-exist on the 
computer screen.  PictureTel's 15f/s video quality is quite acceptable.  
Also, according to PictureTel, the video and audio do not share 
bandwidth, so the audio was always clear and sharp without any 
noticeable synchronization delays between video and audio.  We were able to 
perform complex searches using a variety of databases with no degradation 
of video or audio in the videoconferencing window.

The problem occurred in the second test, when we used the PictureTel 
database sharing software, intended to share windows-based datafiles 
between videoconferencing stations.  
The speed on a 128 K ISDN line was unacceptably slow (one screen took 45 
seconds to refresh, and since it paints over the existing screen, the 
transmitted image is very confusing).  The database sharing does 
apparently steal some of the reserved audio bandwidth, since the audio 
disappeared several times during searches and screen dumps, and audio 
transmissions occasionally ended in a mechanical squeal.
Other windows databases, such as Excel Spreadsheets and Word documents, 
could be smoothly shared, which leads me to believe that a PAC GUI is 
simply too bandwidth-intensive for the sharing application.

My suspicion is that any PC-based videoconferencing system would work 
approximately the same.  We selected PictureTel for our test because it 
is very standards-based (unlike Intel) and because its dedicated 
audio/video bandwidth earned it high ratings in video/audio quality in 
some standard review sources.  I do understand that PC videoconferencing has 
concentrated 
almost exclusively on the corporate world and may not be ready for the 
information-intensive library world, yet. 

While PictureTel worked well without database sharing, it is my feeling 
that reference interviews to explain complex databases, utilizing 
videoconferencing, would be more confusing than helpful unless both 
parties are looking at the same screen, and it is very difficult to be 
certain you are looking at the same screen unless you can control screen 
dumps via PC. 

The only other possible technology that might enable this functionality 
is TCP/IP-based, such as CU-See me, over Internet.

My question is two-fold:  is anyone else experimenting with/considering a 
videoconferencing interface to their Public Catalog or Web Server? If 
so, have you begun testing different systems?  Is there a windows-based 
PC videoconferencing system that you are using or looking at that solves 
the problem AFPL experienced with PictureTel? 

Is anyone using CU-See Me for sharing reference databases, or for any 
vdeoconferencing use?  I am not that familiar with CU-See Me, other than 
what I have read.  Are  any other Internet-based videoconferencing 
systems other than CU-See Me?

Thanks for your assistance with this!
___________________________________________________________________________

Grace Agnew
Assistant Director for System Support & Technical Development
Atlanta-Fulton Public Library
One Margaret Mitchell Square
Atlanta, GA  30303-1089
gagnew at ce1.af.public.lib.ga.us