Internet "collection development"

[Sara Weissman/Morris Cty Library]

We have a steady stream of patrons who come in and say "I triedthis
on the Internet at home but I can't find anything ..can you..?"
They are overwhelmed, confused by too many possibilties, too many
lists of links that lead to lists of links that lead to ..and so on.
When I knocked off one patron's Internet query in about 20 seconds,
brought up his page, he said "Gee, my computer at home doesn't work
that way?!" We don't entirely know if it is working, as do not
have counter in every page! (or site counter yet that analyzes
page hits and time) but we are writing to demonstrated patron
need/inquiry. (from www.gti.net/mocolib1/ref.html) Aging Parents
and School Information, especially, were tailored to steady
requests for information...t'ain't highbrow, but it's real life!
That it saves staff a bit of time in framing a response is simply
a nice sidelight...