Web Cam in the library

[Eric Lease Morgan]

Ruth Harrison <Ruth.Harrison at sll.state.tx.us> wrote:

> Are there any libraries out there using web cams? Or something similar?  We
> bought a couple to experiment with. Our main purpose is to communicate with a
> telecommuting employee.  I'm curious as to what if anything, other libraries
> might use one for.

I used a Web cam in a few ways in the past.

First, in 1996 I tried a project I called See You See A Librarian. It was a
qualified success, but in reality, it didn't work very well because
librarians did not have the hardware to participate in the project. See:

  http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/~emorgan/see-a-librarian/

Second, I tried doing "live" presentations at a workshop I hosted one time.
The experts were Roy Tennant and Jean Armour Polly. The problem then was
network bandwidth. See:

  http://www.infomotions.com/waves/travellogs.html

Finally, I used a Web cam in a CGI script I called "Save 25¢ or 'Is Eric
In?'". This hack allowed people to select a URL and get a live picture of my
office. I wrote that program around 1996 as well, and I won a cool wind-up
robot because I created the program in the one-and-only hack-fest I ever
participated in.

Things might be different now-a-days, but there is still a lot of hardware
and network infrastructure necessary to use Web cams, and people still have
bad hair days.

-- 
Eric Lease Morgan
Head, Digital Access and Information Architecture Department
University Libraries of Notre Dame

(574) 631-8604