VIRTUAL MEETING SPACES

Huron County Library offers the ability to host your next meeting online. Book your virtual meeting space today.

Virtual meeting spaces are available Monday to Friday,  8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Meetings will booked in 1.5 hour time slots. You must be 18 years of age or older to book a virtual meeting room.

For any questions, please contact askalibrarian@huroncounty.ca

What can I do with this service?

The Huron County Library will provide access to a “Virtual Meeting Space” via the Zoom Video Conferencing service for up to an hour and a half.

Inside the space, you can video chat, and text chat, with up to 25 people. Library staff will start the meeting for you, and once everyone has entered the virtual space successfully, library staff will transfer hosting controls and leave the virtual space. Staff will do their best to help with any technical difficulties within their control and abilities. Please be patient and help us learn and grow with these new tools.

Examples of Virtual Meeting Space use could include: community group or organization meetings, book clubs, knitting clubs, ukulele groups, educational meetings, or conversation circles and group discussions.

Why Zoom and not other Virtual Meeting Apps?

Zoom boasts some of the easiest-to-use implementations of this technology available, and has been approved for use by Huron County Information Technology department.

Who is eligible to reserve the space?

Any Huron County community member 18 years of age is welcome to reserve a space. Virtual Meeting Spaces are for community use and not intended for For-profit use.

When can I host a meeting?

Spaces can be reserved in 30-minute increments. The maximum session length is one and a half hours. You can book the Virtual Meeting Space between 8:30 am and 5:00 pm, Monday to Friday excluding statutory holidays. In some cases this can be extended for groups that have existing partnerships with the Library.

What types of activities can I do in the meeting?

Huron County Library meeting spaces may be used by individuals and organizations engaged in educational, recreational, cultural, intellectual or charitable activities related to the Library or community.

What technology do I need?

You can use the internet to connect; Zoom has clients for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, Android, and ChromeOS. A device with a web camera is always helpful, but if you have none of these things, a regular telephone will also work for audio (long distance charges may apply). For more information, see Zoom’s System Requirement page. Please note that Zoom was selected for its compatibility and ease of use.

How many Zoom meetings can I reserve?

To start, you may reserve up to 2 meetings per month, per group/organization. We will see how this unfolds and determine our capacity, this may be adjusted.

Some community groups have booked ongoing commitments to use library physical meeting space. It is hoped that as we grow our Virtual Meeting Space the capacity for ongoing weekly commitments will be possible. For now, ongoing weekly virtual meetings are permitted at the discretion of the Huron County Library.

How do I book a Virtual Meeting Space online?

Bookings will be made on a first come first serve basis. You can request to reserve a Virtual Meeting Space by completing the form on the Meeting Rooms page on the Huron County Library website (asterisk indicates required information):

  1. *First Name, of the person booking the Virtual Meeting Space
  2. *Last Name, of the person booking the Virtual Meeting Space
  3. *Email (used to send the meeting link and invite)
  4. Phone number(optional)
  5. Group/Organization
  6. *Purpose of the meeting
  7. *Check box confirming that you are 18 years of age
  8. *Preferred Date and Time (must be Mon-Fri 8:30 am – 5:00 pm)
  9. Alternate Date and Time (must be Mon-Fri 8:30 am – 5:00 pm)
  10. *Approximate number of attendees up to 25 participants
  11. Other information – requests for special considerations
  12. *Check the box to indicate you have read and agree to abide the Huron County Library:

12.1 Rules of Conduct
12.2 Meeting Room Policy
12.3 Virtual Meeting Space Guidelines

You will then receive an email confirming your booking or if the time requested is unavailable, you will be asked to choose another date. Once your booking has been confirmed sit tight, another email will be sent at least 2 business days before your meeting. The email will include:

  1. Zoom meeting hyperlink and phone number access that you will need to share with meeting participants. For security reasons please do not post this link to social media or publicly.
  2. Basic Instructions and tutorials for beginner and first time Zoom participants
  3. Huron County Library Virtual Meeting Space Guidelines

On the date and 15 minutes before the time of the booking, join the meeting by clicking on the meeting Zoom meeting hyperlink provided and entering the password.

What happens in a Virtual Meeting Space?

In the Virtual Meeting Space and within the bounds of the Huron County Library, Virtual Meeting Space Guidelines, Code of Conduct, and Meeting Room policy, what you do, and what you discuss are entirely up to you. A librarian will help you get started and once you feel confident they will leave the meeting space for you and your guests.

What is some of our participants are unsure about their ability to join a meeting?

Huron County Library staff hope to make this as easy as possible, we have all had to try and learn new skills and technology. If you’d like to arrange a pre-meeting to practice we can make that happen.