I t was like entering a Time Warp. In mid July 1998, I found myself in Riverhead, New York with some time to kill.
Many public libraries provide free on-ramps to the Internet.
Located in the Suffolk County seat, the Riverhead branch is but one of 54 library sites connected to the Internet. This library has two I-Net terminals for use by patrons. I met Robbie Walden who mans the reference desk. Walden told me that before I could use a terminal, I needed to fillout some paperwork in order to get a user ID and a system password. The process takes two weeks.