When I reach the four corners, I realize I needn't have worried about finding our meeting place. Fred's vehicle is hard to miss. It's white and 37 feet long, with the words CYBERMOBILE Books + Internet Access emblazoned on one side in large purple letters.

I'm here because I've heard about this high-tech library on wheels. It's got 3,000 books, six laptop computers and full-time satellite access. In fact, when it made its first trip in January 2001, it was the world's first satellite-linked public library vehicle.

I park my car and climb aboard.

I meet Fred Marshall of Cortland, who has driven the Vestal-based Four County Library System Cybermobile (and before that, the Bookmobile) for 19 years. Staffing the library with him today is Noelle Pyznar of Kirkwood.

I walk down the carpeted corridor, perusing the titles neatly organized in labeled categories on the wooden shelves that line the sides of the vehicle. The nonfiction section includes everything from "Dave Barry Is from Mars and Venus" to Tom Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation." There are hundreds of fiction titles, and I count 16 shelves of children's books.

Fred shows me how the section of shelves holding books on tape swings open to reveal a wheelchair lift.

"Want to check your e-mail?" he asks, gesturing to one of the four computer workstations available to patrons.

I scroll down a page on the Four County Library System website. But we're on a schedule, and it's time to move on.

At the Schuyler Lake stop, a woman enters carrying a potted pine tree, which she presents to Fred.

"That'll be my Snoopy Christmas tree," he says with a laugh, introducing me to Karin Ellison and her 8-year-old daughter, Maya, who is already piling up books to take home.

Karin kneels and begins decorating the 2-foot tree. She works quickly, and within a few minutes, tiny black spiders and orange pumpkins are dangling from the tree. As she stretches fiberfill "cobwebs" across the branches, she tells me the convenience and personal service of the Cybermobile have made it a habit for her the past five years — even though she also visits a nearby public library.

"If I need a book, I just ask Fred," Karin says, as she and Maya gather up their books to leave. "These guys are great."

It's lunchtime, and Fred and Noelle plan to stop for a break. I follow the Cybermobile as it winds along county Route 16, scattering yellow leaves that billow like flurries in its path. We pass barns and silos, grazing cows and withered cornfields, old cemeteries and bales of hay. We end up at the Quickway in Hartwick.

Over lunch, Noelle tells me about a South Valley woman who had used the Internet the day before to visit a website she'd seen in a magazine. She left the Cybermobile with information on an organization seeking volunteers to knit scarves for military personnel overseas.

At the Mount Vision stop, a woman admires the Halloween tree. Noelle asks about a patron who hasn't visited the library in a while. "That's not like her," the woman says, promising to check and make sure everything is OK.

In Laurens, a dozen Board of Cooperative Educational Services students enter the Cybermobile a few at a time. Within five minutes, one boy finds three R.L. Stine "Goosebumps" books he hasn't read.

"We're their biggest fans," teacher Mary Beth Laing says of the Cybermobile staff, as the students head back to class, each clutching two or three new books.

Wells Bridge is the last stop.

"Fred, I think Catherine is here," Noelle says, looking out the front window. Fred leaves, returning with an elderly woman and three bags of books.

I meet 88-year-old Catherine Fleming, who tells me she has been a customer of the Cyber/Bookmobile for 26 years.

"Books are so expensive anymore," she says. "I can't buy them like I used to. They have everything here that you could ever want, and they're very nice about bringing the ones you request."

Catherine says she reads "at least a couple" books a week, usually fiction. She finds out about new titles through the New York Times Book Review and Huntington Memorial Library Director Marie Bruni's weekly newspaper column.

"I like the service I get here. You can put that down," she says as she leaves. "It's the best."

During my drive back to Oneonta, I review the day. And I realize that the Cybermobile has surprised me.

The 1.2-meter rooftop satellite-dish antenna and the IBM ThinkPad computers were impressive.

However, what really strikes me is not the new technology, but rather, the old-fashioned hospitality the Cybermobile delivers.

I love my local library, but if the Cybermobile were to add a stop near my house, I'd be the first one there.

That is, of course, as long as I'm not running late.

——

Lisa Miller is The Daily Star's community editor. She can be reached at (607) 441-7216 or lmiller@thedailystar.com.