[11221] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: Clifford Lynch, Scientific American (March)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Miriam Bobkoff)
Mon Apr 14 22:51:47 1997
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 19:48:52 -0500 (CDT)
From: Miriam Bobkoff <mbobkoff@rt66.com>
In-Reply-To: <199704022004.MAA26347@jericho.one-o.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
On Wed, 2 Apr 1997, Robert E. Maas wrote:
> ... For example, I wish either the Community Service Agency, or the
> Public Library, here in Mountain View, would set up public access
> services, especially for the many homeless people in this area.
Success story:
As soon as we got our public stations up in January, a homeless man who
was a total newbie to the Net became our first persistent user. Within a
few half-hour turns on the machines he had himself a Hot Mail account, had
found heaps of sites put up by communitarians of various flavors, and was
carring on a lively correspondence with people interested in alternative
communities, and with people at the communities themselves. Because he was
around so much he soon was helping other newbies, showing people how to
find things, get themselves free Web-based mail accounts, encouraging them
to ask us librarians for help when they got stuck. This week he leaves for
a six-month trial at a agricultural community somewhere in the upper
midwest, arranged entirely through his new Internet life. Homeless no more
if things work out (and judging by his singlemindedness in pursuing what
he wanted, why shouldn't they work out?)
Some people bounce off, of course, but lots of newbies who come to the
library get a toehold on what they might or might not find on the Net, and
soon locate resources we could never possibly have afforded in our small
system when all we could offer was physical things we could buy.
Miriam Bobkoff personal: mbobkoff@rt66.com
Santa Fe Public Library http://www.rt66.com/~mbobkoff/
145 Washington Avenue
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 984-6832 The Library's Page http://www.ci.santa-fe.nm.us/sfpl/
