counting Internet use

[Sara Weissman/Morris Cty Library]

We're doing it again...from the inside out, not the outside in. I am less 
concerned about what the patrons who come in do with the Net (we've been
 helping them for over 4 yrs now...we have a feel for what they use/need) 
than I am about the remote patrons for whom we are theInternet target. 
While it is gratifying that we are about to break 1,000 hits in a month on 
our site, it is deflating to find myself answering questions for university 
students in Kentucky, India and the Philippines; fiction titles for someone 
in upstate NY (I gave her titles and the e-mail address of her local 
library!); sending CD-ROM "liner notes" to someone in Wisconsin and 
advising an employee of a major corporation how to install a telnet app. It
 underlines what I learned in three years as an AOL volunteer Internet coach:
people haven't a clue about the resources and assistance available in their
libraries. Two telephone patrons in the last two weeks have said "Oh, I
don't like going to the (local) library anymore...I don't understand all
those machines." Here's another Internet statistic. Over 800 people a month
are using our web site, instead of their "hometown" (or college or business) 
library...why? And what do we do about what we learn from this? </soapbox>