One other area where I spend an increasing amount of time with patrons is on computing issues. I'm not by any means a computer whiz, but I learn from my own mistakes, from the mistakes of others and from reading constantly in the area of technology. If I'm speaking techno and the eyes begin to glaze over, then I need to stop, backtrack and make sure I get everyone on the wagon again. There was one point last week where I had three people in my office at the same time with three entirely different computer-related questions. For those who have seen the size of my office, you can imagine how interesting that was.
Distance means less and less in the library world.
At least once a week now, we get a question from someone far away with Boothbay Region connections. I chatted at length with a gentleman in the Midwest last weekend who wanted to know the origin of Cuckhold in relation to the light of the same name. Fortunately, we have a dandy reference book of Maine place names and were able to give him an accurate answer. I enjoy these exchanges with people from all over. For the first time in ages, I'm feeling more optimistic about our computer network dilemma.