Hotmail in Libraries

[NFML at aol.com]

Cheryl Bell wrote:
>Has anyone thought about or have "Hotmail" available from their Library 
>webpage?  We have had several inquiries about email availability at our 
>library and I just heard about this free email service (which is 
>available from the web, not dialing a number).  What do you all think?

We have been recommending it in our Job-Hunting on the Web class and to
individual patrons who indicate a need for e-mail.   In most cases the only
problem is patrons who forget their password and expect us to be able to
retrieve it, however, there are a few very heavy e-mail users who repeatedly
cause the terminal they are working on to freeze up.  Our systems people
haven't ruled out patron action, but suspect that there may be a bug in
Hotmail that causes the problem in longer sessions (over 15 minutes).  Do
remember to tell your patrons that the "cost" of a Hotmail account is having
their name and address sold to direct marketers.  Hotmail makes this clear,
if you probe deeply enough, but most users won't.