CHECK IT OUT

For anyone serious about joining the Information Age, skills for

navigating the World Wide Web are an essential component of

cyber-citizenship.

To get up to speed in the online world, Internet neophytes will find

beginning-level guidance in Annalisa Milner’s “Browsing the Web,” from

the Essential Computers series. While it focuses exclusively on Microsoft

products, this new volume provides generic advice for opening a Web page,

creating favorites and searching effectively with an array of tools.

Also aimed at beginners is Mark and Betty Ater’s “Internet User’s

Handbook 2001,” covering Internet providers, freebies, online finance,

credit card usage and travel. Writing with Windows users in mind, the

Aters field commonly asked questions about choosing computer hardware and

software, buying stocks online and mastering popular Internet functions.

For more sophisticated users, Phil Bradley reveals how to access

online resources many may overlook in “Internet Power Searching.” Topics

include virtual libraries, databases, newsgroups and mailing lists.

Dozens of browser tips and an appendix listing all URLs mentioned in the

book are handy for searchers of all experience levels.

Equally broad in appeal is “Harley Hahn’s Internet & Web Yellow Pages

2001,” a witty directory covering everything from jobs, kids, money,

movies and news to politics, romance and trivia. While imminently useful,

this comprehensive guide is also hugely entertaining, with humorous

insights, jokes and souvenirs from Harley’s Internet travels.

In addition to volumes offering general Web guidance, numerous

resources focus on specific subjects. Among the newest is “Michael

Shapiro’s Internet Travel Planner,” a handbook for finding bargains,

selecting tour companies and mapping out trips. Highlights include

information about obtaining passports online, locating discussion forums

and finding worldwide health and weather information.

For those in the real estate market, mortgage broker Randy Johnson

reveals how to preview homes and research communities in “How to Find a

Home and Get a Mortgage on the Internet.” Additionally, he provides leads

for sites that can help buyers figure out what they can afford and what

kind of loan is best.

To help make payments, there’s Pam Dixon’s “Job Searching Online for

Dummies,” featuring more than 400 career Web sites. Job hunters can

discover how to research employers, create an electronic resume and

network online with this employment guide.

The subject of all of these works would have been moot without the

vision of World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, a low-profile genius

hailed by Time magazine as one of the 100 greatest minds of the century.

Read Berners-Lee’s fascinating account of how information on computers

everywhere got linked in “Weaving the Web,” offering insights to help

readers use the Internet to their fullest advantage.

That advantage includes the ability to determine the status of all

resources mentioned above from https://www.newportbeachlibrary.org. At

this multilayered site, a new online catalog provides a user-friendly

path to books, magazines, videos, CDs or just about anything else at the

Newport Beach Central and branch libraries.

At Central Library “Tools & Tricks” tutorial sessions -- 10 a.m. on

the third Saturday of most months -- library staff provide instruction

for using this electronic resource most effectively.

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public

Library. This week’s column is by Melissa Adams, in collaboration with

Tim Hetherton.