Guidelines for Community Use of

Public Library Videoconferencing Services

Part I – Setting Policy and Pricing

Here is a step-by-step guide to setting policy and fees for use of public library videoconferencing services by members of your community.

1. Set Realistic Expectations

If your motivation is to help your community by providing a new service, be aware that businesses and government agencies will be your primary users for awhile. Most community groups will need more time and exposure to the technology before they will be able to take advantage of it.

If your motivation is to generate a profit to help subsidize other services, you might want to talk with libraries who share that objective. In California, Huntington Beach Public Library is pioneering this approach to community use of videoconferencing .However, if any component of your videoconferencing service offering is supported through a federal grant, check with your consultant at the California State Library, as funding guidelines may limit use of any profits or revenues generated.

2. Know Your Limitations

It may not be a good idea to offer public videoconferencing services unless your equipment is in a meeting room or similar enclosed space. You don’t want videoconferencing to interfere with other library activities, and groups may be reluctant to use the equipment without a bit of privacy.

Also, make sure you have the resources to provide adequate technical support. A typical videoconference requires between 30 minutes to one hour of staff time in addition to standard meeting room support. This does not include time needed during the meeting itself to troubleshoot technical problems or operate peripheral equipment such as a VCR or camcorder.

3. Look at Your Facilities

List the rooms or spaces in your library that can accommodate community use of videoconferencing. Each location will need to be wired for videoconferencing, and have a separate voice telephone (or a cell phone) available in the room for use in troubleshooting.

Determine how many people the room can sit in various configurations – classroom (chairs at tables or desks), conference (chairs in u-shape around a single table), or theater (chairs only). Make a list of audiovisual equipment available to augment a videoconference – this could include a VCR or DVD player, a computer with scan converter (for showing websites or PowerPoint slides), document camera, and additional TV monitors or video projectors (for accommodating larger groups.)

For more help:            -- Facilities and Equipment Worksheet

4. Determine Your Costs

You need to know the costs associated with community videoconferencing in order to determine whether you can absorb them or need to cover them through user fees.

Unless your library obtained videoconferencing solely for community use purposes, you probably don’t need to calculate the costs of equipment purchase and installation, annual maintenance contract, and recurring telecommunications charges. These are expenses you would incur even if you didn’t offer videoconferencing to the public.

Here are the major cost elements you do want to look at:

Telecommunications (ISDN) usage charges

These apply only if your location makes the video call; you aren’t charged for incoming calls. If you use ISDN, as most public libraries in California do, charges will vary by telecommunications carrier and the type of call. Contact your carrier(s) to determine rates for the five major types of call: local, intraLATA or “Local Toll,” intrastate, interstate, or international. Be sure and

specify that these calls are being made over ISDN lines; most carriers charge more for ISDN calls than for calls made over regular voice phone lines.

Most of your videoconferencing will probably be intraLATA, intrastate, or interstate. Since the intraLATA and intrastate toll markets are now fully competitive in California, there will likely be little difference in those rates.

Carriers usually quote ISDN usage rates by “channel”, with a single ISDN line comprising two channels. Most videoconferencing is done over three ISDN lines, or six channels, so multiply the usage rate by six to get the true cost of a call.

Sprint offers one of the lowest ISDN usage rates available, through its contract with the California State Association of Counties (CSAC). Intrastate calls cost about $30/hour and interstate videoconferencing runs about $45/hour. To sign up for these rates, contact Bill Long with Sprint at 916-853-3173 or bill.long@mail.sprint.com. Make it clear that you want the CSAC rates.

When calculating ISDN charges for a particular videoconference, add about 1.5 hours of additional usage for making a test call a few days before the event and for connecting well before meeting start time to allow time for troubleshooting.

User support

Consider the amount of user support needed and calculate the labor costs involved. Elements to consider include:

• Instructing the user in equipment basics
• Being present or on-call during the meeting to provide assistance
• Setting up the equipment, including peripheral devices such as a VCR

              or auxiliary monitor

• Putting away equipment after the event
• Overtime for out-of-hours support

For more help:            -- Costs and Fees Worksheet

5. Review Your Meeting Room Policy

To make it easy on yourself, adapt your meeting room policy to include videoconferencing, rather than developing an entirely separate policy for videoconferencing. The more your videoconferencing guidelines are consistent with other elements of your meeting room policy, the easier it will be for you and your staff to market the service and explain its terms and conditions.

Review each element of your meeting room policy and determine whether you need to make any exceptions for videoconferencing use. For example, you may decide to allow videoconferencing use only by other government agencies, due to staff support limitations, even though the meeting room itself may be open to many more types of users.

Pay special attention to the section of your policy that covers other types of audiovisual equipment available for use in meeting rooms.

For more help:            -- Basic Elements of a Meeting Room Policy

6. Set Your Fees

Now that you know your costs associated with community videoconferencing use, you have three basic options:

• Cover the costs out of your general operating funds or through meeting room fees.

• Set user fees to cover some or all of the costs of providing videoconferencing.

• Set user fees above cost to generate a profit, to help subsidize special projects, underwrite new services, or augment your general operating budget. (However, if any component of your videoconferencing service offering is supported through a federal grant, check with your consultant at the California State Library, as funding guidelines may limit use of any profits or revenues generated.)

You may want to use different approaches with different types of groups, such as no-fee for community groups, cost-recovery for other government agencies, and fee-above-cost for businesses.

If setting fees above cost, you may want to look at other videoconferencing rooms for rent within your community, such as those offered by Kinko’s, HQ, hotels, and community colleges. You might be surprised at the high rates charged by commercial room providers -- generally between $200 and $300 per hour!

Since most of your videoconferencing users will likely be businesses or other government agencies, consider offering additional support services such as faxing, copying, or word processing.

Here’s a sensible and relatively simple pricing model, designed to cover costs:

Standard meeting room fees plus A flat-rate support fee (based on cost of labor needed to support a typical videoconference) and A variable telecommunications fee for outbound calls (based on the connection time [including 1.5 hours for testing and early dial-out] X average rate for the type of call involved [intra- or interstate].)

Consider surcharges for special circumstances, such as out-of-hours meetings involving staff overtime or if the user needs a support person in the room for the entire length of the event.

Also, to save time for you and stress for your user, consider quoting the telecommunications fee upfront, based on the conference length and call type provided by the user, rather than poring over the telephone bill to determine the exact amount to the penny.

For more help:            -- Costs and Fees Worksheet            -- Examples of Videoconferencing Fees            -- Examples of Fees for Business Support Services

7. Establish Processes

Once you have established your policy and pricing for community use of videoconferencing, you will need processes and communications tools for:

• Disclosing service terms and conditions
• Taking reservation requests
• Confirming reservations
• Collecting deposits and fees

You probably already have similar processes in place for meeting rooms. Review these procedures and determine what needs to be added or changed to cover videoconferencing use.

Consider requiring a deposit for using any meeting room equipped with videoconferencing -- even if a group doesn’t plan to use the equipment. Meeting room users can easily damage or misadjust the unit while trying to “watch TV” or “play a videotape”. This has been known to happen in smaller libraries with no other space to park the equipment.

Requiring a deposit is particularly important if you do not have a maintenance contract to cover equipment damage or malfunction.

For more help:            -- Basic Elements of a Reservations Process            -- Details to Provide and Obtain from Users            -- Examples of Videoconferencing Request Forms (PDF)

8. Plan for Providing User Support and Training

Train users in a few basic videoconferencing operations so you don’t need to have a support person on-hand for the entire meeting. The orientation should cover functions users handle by themselves, as well as situations requiring staff assistance.

Remind users to treat the videoconferencing system equipment gently, like they would any other type of electronic device. Limit their hands-on operation to the remote control and the tabletop microphone. Inform them that all other components must be controlled by staff. Make sure they have a way to get staff assistance ASAP if needed.

For repeat users, consider providing a session of more in-depth training that will enable them to use the system with minimal staff involvement. Plumas County Library took this approach with one of its frequent users, the Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District.

For more help:            -- Equipment Use Overview

9. Think About Special Issues

Community use of videoconferencing raises some new and unique issues, and you may want to consult with your attorney before developing policies in these areas.

Permission to Use a Person’s Image

Consider whether videoconferencing participants need to give written permission before their image and/or voice can be transmitted across telecommunications line or be videotaped. This may be a particular concern when minors are involved. You might want to require a child’s parent or guardian to sign a release form prior to the child participating in a videoconference.

Limit of Liability

Consider including a policy element that limits your library’s liability in the case of telecommunications or equipment malfunction or failure.

Use of Outside Equipment

Users may want to bring in outside equipment to integrate with your videoconferencing unit, such as computers, extra monitors, sound equipment, or

Projectors. If you decide to allow this, define responsibilities for equipment set-up, testing, and operation. Set limits regarding the level of staff support you will provide under such circumstances, and set fees as appropriate.

Going “Above and Beyond”

Users may need help with the overall organization of a videoconference, not just the part that involves your equipment and meeting room. For example, you might be asked to arrange bridging service for a multi-site conference, or to find a location in another city for the “other half” of a virtual meeting. Consider how much support you want to offer in these cases -- perhaps providing a tip sheet would suffice. Consider how to mitigate the risk that users may hold you responsible for the performance of third-party site or service vendor that you recommend or engage on the user’s behalf.

Quality Assurance

Unlike most other meeting room services, at least 50 percent of a videoconference takes place beyond the walls of your library – and outside your control. Users may not understand this, however, and may hold you responsible if something goes wrong. It’s in everyone’s best interest to clearly define who is responsible for what, and to ensure that all parties take all steps necessary to ensure a satisfactory videoconferencing experience.

Consider addressing the following points in your service terms and conditions:

• The library is not responsible for the performance of any third-party providers involved in the videoconference, such as other videoconferencing sites and multipoint bridging providers.

• Users are expected to abide by standard principles and practices for organizing and conducting a successful videoconference, including those pertaining to matters not directly associated with the library.

• Users are responsible for ensuring that third-party site or service vendors comply with the library’s required procedures, such as participating in a connectivity test prior to the event and addressing any problems or issued identified

10. Write It Up!

You should now have everything you need to write a policy and set fees for community use of your public library’s videoconferencing services.

For more help:            -- Examples of Community Use Policies

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These guidelines were developed by Project Videonet, a cooperative initiative serving the more than 40 California public libraries equipped with interactive videoconferencing. Project Videonet is supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. For more information about Project Videonet, contact project manager Dan Theobald of i2i Communications at 415-431-0329 or via email at dtheobald@i2icom.com.

This document is also available in Word and PDF formats.