Resources - Book review - Net's friendly companion. Mark Chillingworth reviews a user friendly guide book to internet technology that welcomes the web as a benefit to information professionals and libraries.

In The Library and Information Professional's Internet Companion, the three authors have written a bright and airy book that is quite literally a friendly companion.

In some corners of the information industry the internet is viewed as either a threat or a cancer that has ruined everything the information profession strived for, but these are dark and irrelevant corners. This title starts off with a positive attitude and keeps its head up high all the way.

Throughout the 10 chapters the internet is described as being beneficial to information professionals and libraries. It opens with a clear bullet-pointed definition of these benefits: online selection of titles and renewals; stock purchasing; e-journals; e-learning; and reader development websites.

As a companion, the book is intended to be an easy reference title to internet technology and basic operations of the web. The first chapter is an explanation of the internet for the uninitiated, and although most information professionals will have no need for this chapter, no book about a technology can exist without a basic explanation of the technology in question.

The following chapters explain how an information professional can publish websites, and use instant messaging and other ...