While learning and testing SPS, me and my client became quite
satisfied with using the default navigational approach based on
portal areas, and wanted to put a group of "non collaborative"
document libraries on areas - areas WSS sites. We are not
pretending to "collaborate in the portal", this libraries, about 20,
contain final state documents, pretended to be read and used once
they are uploaded.

So we came with the first limitation : You cannot assign permissions
at a document library level, you have to use area permissions. No
problem, we will put only one doc. lib. in the area, with different
views.

The second and not resolved limitation : our document libraries have
some metadata fields that are pre-defined values, intended to reside
in Customs Lists. We wanted to create lookup metadata fields or
connected web parts so that the user could pick the value form the
list when he uploads the document or modifies its properties. A
simple issue, besides the fact that lists don't span across areas
and sites !!!. This means I wuld have to create and mantain differnt
lists in all of my areas wich contain doc. libs. that need to be
linked somohow to this list, eventough it's always the same.

I know I can modify the area template so that the list gets created
with the area, and configure the template to include the contents.
But once created, it's a complete independent list. Soif the list is
going to change, this is not acceptable.

So, Can I access a list data from anywhere and make it available for
lookup or connecting, without using frontpage ? (Could be a some
coded web part)