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Volume 2 Issue 5May 1998

Videoconferencing Training in Northern California

Mary Shrader Lasica
Education Advocate, Pacific Bell Education First

March 27 was the kickoff for training for the NorCal Video Link, a consortium comprised of 11 library sites from the Mountain Valley Library System and the North State Cooperative Library System. Libraries are located in Yreka (Siskiyou), Willows (Glenn), Quincy (Plumas), Redding (Shasta), Auburn (Placer), Placerville (El Dorado), Nevada City (Nevada), Yuba City (Sutter), West Sacramento (Yolo), Chico (Butte), and Sacramento (Sacramento).

Participants from the southern half of the consortium gathered at The Sacramento Public Library, Main Branch for a three-hour session introducing both technical and communication aspects of videoconferencing. Participants learned basic operation of a PictureTel Live 200 desktop videoconference system by placing calls to a like system in either Sacramento or Fairfield. Tools such a whiteboard and file transfer were explored.

The second half of the session looked at effective uses of the technology, focusing on the writings of the Pacific Bell Education First Fellows at San Deigo State University. This information, found on Pacific Bell's Knowledge Network Explorer (http://www.kn.pacbell.com/vidconf), outlines ways to communicate most effectively in both point-to-point and multi-point videoconferences.

Training for the northern sector of the consortium took place on Wednesday, April 22 at Shasta College in Redding with approximately 15 participants attending; this session duplicated the Sacramento training. The final training session will link the north and south to discuss how this technology can be introduced and integrated into each community.

The consortium is a recipient of an LSTA (Federal Library Services & Technology Act) grant from the California State Library that provides equipment and operating expenses to allow exploration of the ways videoconferencing can benefit participating communities.

For more information, contact Dan Theobald at 415-431-0329 or dtheobald@earthlink.net.