Librarians on Mars: combating isolation via the Internet. (librarians based in isolated places)

When I put out a call to "librarians on Mars" - isolated from their peers on ships, on small islands, sequestered behind nine feet of concrete, or marooned in the center of underpopulated prairies - I was deluged with messages proving that despite intense commercial pitches to the contrary, the Internet does much more than deliver glossy Web pages to the masses. Through basic services such as e-mail, it connects people to other people, organizations, and services; and because of its communication power it serves as a lifeline to professionalism for the librarian in far-off places.

You and I probably take e-mail for granted, but our Martian colleagues don't. Katherine Kelly, a librarian at Guam Air Force Base, said that although she got some …