Guides and Directories Books

San Francisco has a timeless beauty that shines through in this beautiful book. It's no wonder so many great films have chosen this city as their backdrop, with it's amazing architecture, history and natural beauty. Van Buskirk's book celebrates this beauty and offers some fascinating inside information on the films that were shot there. Reading through the book gives a chance to revisit some of these classic films. Highly recommended.

In "The Other Sister"...1998...Juliette Lewis, Jim says the church in the final wedding scene is St. Peter and Paul. Wrong! The church used is St. Francis of Assisi on Vallejo.
Omitted two movies with scenes of San Francisco:
...The Gathering of Eagles...1963...Rock Hudson
...The Killer Elite...1975...James Caan
While these items are not major, a guide should be complete and thoroughly researched. I feel that Mr. Van Buskirk gets a B- for this guide and a two star rating.

"Celluloid San Francisco" is a rather exhaustive guide to movie locations around San Francisco. In fact, for my purposes as a tourist visiting the Bay Area, it was a bit too overstuffed to be easy to use. It is quite crammed with sites used in obscure B-movies (and, I daresay, C-movies) and for random scenes in not especially memorable TV shows. A lot of the entries are also rather repetitive and have the feel of being simply padding.

As a "Vertigo" fan, I found "Footsteps In The Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco" a lot more useful and much better written, though it was limited to Hitchcock movies, so I must admit that I had to turn to "Celluloid San Francisco" to find the sites of Bacall's art deco apartment from "Dark Passage" and Mel Brooks' glass elevator ride in "High Anxiety."

Anyone who loves anything in the SF Bay Area and in the movies will have a feast with Celluloid San Francisco. I was instantly charmed by the slick title, the elegant cover, the generous amount of photos, movie posters and other evocative details of illustration. Then I checked the index and found my favorite SF movie, Vertigo, represented 17 times. The authors are obviously serious about their passion. The research alone is impressive (an understatement), but there is much more. There is good writing, delivered in small, appetizing bites, there is a sharp eye for detail, mixed with playful irony. The love for SF as a place of culture and adventure jumps off the pages like bubbles of champaign. If you think I am making this up, go to page 94-95, entry no 50: The Fairmont Hotel, and learn that this is where Hitchcock stayed while shooting Vertigo, where "Orson Welles unexpectantly encountered William Randolph Hearst, the model for Citizen Kane's megalomaniacal character" in the elevator, where Tony Bennett first sang "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", where Marlene Dietrich......
But don't believe me -- see for yourself.
Renate Stendhal, author of "Gertrude Stein in Words and Pictures"

I read this book with great interest as a SF resident. Mr. Van Buskirk and Mr. Shank certainly did their homework. Their knowledge of Bay Area movies is fantastic, and their delivery by geography is right on.

I think this book is a plus for unsure parents.

Second only to Paul Ogden's "Silent Garden" (which treats of a broader range of issues than does "Choices") this is the most balanced and readable book specifically dealing with deaf education and communications options that we (hearing parents of profoundly deaf toddler) have yet found. There is a very good mix of professional articles and actual parental stories, recently supplemented by updates from the children themselves, now mostly grown. This is the only book of its kind that we have seen that provides actual audiograms for most stundets/subjects, something hearing parents MUST have in order to relate the stories in "Choices" to THEIR kids' situation. (I only wish AIDED audiograms had been consistently included as well, since those are nearly as important as basic audiograms.) I dont suggest tinkering with success, but I do think somewhat more information on the failure rates for given options should have been given, since it is far too easy for us as parents to imagine OUR child as being the succesful student portrayed in each section, thus short-chaging the down-side risks of each option. Also, it might have been nice if a few more stories of deaf people who DIDNT live in Maryland at some point in their life could have been included. That's hardly a real criticsm, though, and I conclude by this book highly.

I'm one of the people who was published in this book, under the Cued Speech section, and I did add a supplement to it. I think this book is a MUST read by any new parent of a deaf child. It presents a clear, un-biased outline of all options available for your child, (although I'm biased and believe that the Cued Speech option is a no-brainer. :-) but its still a excellent book and well-written and edited. Kudos to Sue Schwartz!

As a mom with a one year old newly diagnosed as severely deaf, I found this book very helpful. After going online and learning of all the controversy surrounding deaf issues,it was refreshing to find a book that gave equal time to differing views. This book led me to making the choice that is right for our child and our family. I loved that it gave professional veiwpoints for each language-learning option, as well as the story of a family that chose each of the various options.

This is a great book!!

After our child was diagnosed with deafness, we were overwelmed with so much information, so many decisions to make. This book offers a nonbiased, comprehensive outline of the educational options available for deaf children. I use it as a reference manual and read it three or four times after my son's diagnosis. We're four years down the road now and I'm going to read it again. There is a wealth of information here. It is the first book I recommend parents read after finding out their child is deaf.

Bruce must be congratulated for the indepth research in facilitating acces to the Web, that is otherwise hidden, deep and in mysterious webs.

This book contains practical (be is very basic) information for locating religious resources on the internet. One plus regarding this book is that it covers more than just the 8 'great religions' and also covers alternative religious sites as well. Recommended for the internet search engine challenged.

It is quite off-subject in the first few chapters, going through explaining how to use various features of the browser and such, but it does get going eventually. It is by far the best book I have read yet concerning online religion.

Along with being a great list of great web sites for many, many religions, it also covers quite a bit of information about them, explaining some basic philosophies, practices, etc.

If you're doing any religious research or looking for your religion or doing anything else with religion online you must have this book!

This author belives that the Soka Gakkai is pure evil, and as a Soka Gakkai member I was deeply offended. But its still a OK book.

An interesting project, considering that every religion has its critics, and you are always going to offend someone by writing about their religion. The Watchtower is no exception, with literally hundreds of websites postured against this organization and only two official websites of the Watchtower with very limited information. Yet, it is the responsibility of the web critic who wishes to reach the reader to be kind and fair to members of the religion who may be browsing online. A little humor and some poetry, film and sound waves are nice. I get many Witnesses write me at freeminds.org.

I have been using the internet for many years, but this book taught me things that I didn't know. Using the links on the book website enabled me to quickly go to pages and learn as I read. It's really a great tool for students learning to do research papers.

I was looking for the second edition of this book, which is perhaps some indication of how valuable I consider the first edition to be! Yes, the other reviewers have some good points, the page numbers are hard to read, some of the information in the tables is not so clear... but hang on... you do get over 200 pages stacked with information, tips, tools, references and explanations of how things work on the web. I can't vouch for everything's accuracy and I'm sure with developments it will get dated, but mine is well used copy that I read front to back and made notes in the margins, highlighted sites etc. To think that you wouldn't buy a book that is this good, stacked with useful information because you couldnt read the page numbers is a little crazy.

Anyone who's ever used a Microsoft product to an advanced level realises that most people only ever use maybe 1-5% of the product's capability, blissfully unaware of it's power and possibilities... likewise, most people think that good research is as simple as hiting a few key words into Google. Understand how Google works (it's not difficult) and you take your searching to a whole new level... even for a novice searcher...

The book is loaded with information - want to know where to find an archive of a web page from years back even though it has changed over time...look in the book, want to find a presentation on the internet done by the author of your favourite website... look in the book... want to find the companies that link to your website or your competitors? ... simple... you'll find many more gems in this book. Moreover, the author updates links etc on his website.

I've tried some of the other supersearcher books and they dont have the depth of content that this one does. I'd still buy it today for the gems I've gotten out of this one, it has given me far more value than its meagre list price. You may also find vaulable Mary Ellen Bate's book Building and Running a successful Research Business which also has some great search tips and strategies.

Highly recommended.

I bought this book as a textbook for an Electronic Information Retrieval course at school. I have found that this is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to learn how to get more out of their Internet and Database searches. This is a must have for anyone needing to do research!!

As the author points out in this book's introduction, Internet searching gets more difficult as the number of Web pages on the Internet increases. Finding what you want isn't simply a matter of entering the right keywords in a search engine. You need to know how to search and which search engine will work best for you. You need to know where to start on the Internet if the information you are searching for can be found without using a search engine or is found on what the author calls "the invisible Web," the part of the Internet that hasn't been mapped and indexed by search engines.

"The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook" is a practical-advice guide to Internet searching. The author looks at Web directories and search engines and tells you where to start when you are doing different kinds of research. There is also advice for conducting research in newsgroups and mailing lists, as well as a catalogue of online references such as encyclopedias and dictionaries. A chapter on news sources and online shopping Web sites rounds out the book.

If you are patient, you can get a lot of good advice from this book. I discovered, for example, that one search engine, AltaVista, permits "NEAR" searches for keywords within ten words of one another on Web pages. I didn't know this kind of search was available. I also discovered a handful of excellent directories and Web sites for conducting Internet research.

However, this book doesn't serve well as a reference. The headings are not particularly descriptive, which makes finding information difficult. The author does a good job of explaining each search engine's features, but the features are presented in long bulleted lists, which makes it hard to compare the search engines. A table in Chapter 4 attempts to compare different search engines, but the table is so crowded with data, it is nearly impossible to read or understand.

The author rightfully points out that Internet researchers often neglect newsgroups and mailing lists in their research, but his instructions for searching for newsgroups with Google are out of date and he doesn't explain how to use Outlook Express or another newsgroup reader to subscribe to newsgroups. Worse, he lumps Yahoo! groups in with newsgroups, when really the two are quite different, as Yahoo! groups are held privately by Yahoo! members (and for that matter, the author might have considered explaining how to create a Yahoo! group on your own). Only three pages are devoted to mailing lists. I think this topic could've used more attention.

The author obviously knows his stuff and is passionate about helping others conduct research on the Internet. I just wish this book was organized more carefully and was professionally published. As another reviewer noted, a graphic image (of a leaf?) obscures the page numbers. That is unforgivable in a reference book like this one, where you often have to consult the index and turn to a particular page. I got angry more than once at not being able to tell which page I was looking at.

This resource should be on every serious searcher's shelf next to Chris Sherman's book(s)and Find It Online. Gary Price updates his website to supplement the chapters in the written book, which is very helpful. Price takes a slightly different approach to Sherman, which helps to find resources which might not be self-apparent from Sherman's books. I can't imagine being without either this tool or those of Price's colleague (Sherman).

I really didn't find much new information in this book, and it was somewhat of a disappointment. I'm passing it along to my in-laws as they might be able to save some money on some of the hints pertaining to their activities and hobbies. I probably wouldn't buy this book again if given the opportunity.

OK, who wants to admit they are over 50? But its a great resource for busy people who don't have time to do all the legwork themselves. One deal and you've made back the price of this book!

Linda Bowman, author of the FREE Stuff and Good Deals series of books, has cobbled together a fine resource for seniors in this book.The book is chiefly a reference work. It is loaded with information on low-cost entertainment, active lifestyle ideas, travel resources (the section I enjoyed most), financial and legal tips, senior learning tools, and health related information. Some of the resources and sites that she referred to will be added at ElderHope.com! FREE Stuff is a book of references and ideas and, as such, should serve you well.

This author has really done her homework. This book is chock-full of money-saving tips and ideas for people over 50. We're used to seeing senior discounts here and there, but this presents a myriad of them in one easy-to-use guide. Using this, you don't have to keep a drawer-full of clippings to keep track of what's out there.

This is a very good resource for seniors, but the title is rather misleading. Most of the deals are for the over-65 crowd. Too many don't specify the age requirement, and it can be frustrating to call or write, only to find you don't qualify. I would highly recommend this for anyone collecting Social Security; those younger will find themselves in the unusual position of wishing they were older.

by far the best way to review and select resorts for your purpose. very easy to use, accurate and INDEPENDANT.
money well spent to ensure you go to the best place for you.

A nice collection of information but for what I was looking for the web had as much information on what was where and how much it cost. This book is not worth as much as others becuase it lacks the reader input and real experience of going and being there. Most info can be picked up from travel guides and brochures.

This is a wonderful resource with loads of candid opinions on what's great and not so great in the Alps. It is an overview and does not go into tremendous detail on any one resort, but if you are trying to pick from the overwhelming range of choices, this book will definitely help. Be aware, the book is written from a decidedly British point of view so it places much value on some criteria that American skiers may not value quite as highly (i.e. whether on-mountain dining is of a high enough quality). Also, don't rely on the section covering US resorts for anything other than a humerous glimpse at how the Brits size up places like Vail and Lake Tahoe (both criticized for "lack of non-skiing activities"). There are no photos and the mountain maps give only the broadest idea of the mountains and terrain offer, but the individual writeups are worth their weight in gold.

I have used this book over several editions to help me plan and book ski-holidays in Europe and the USA.

What the other reviewers don't mention (and neither does Amazon) is that the book is published by the not-for-profit Consumer's Association [of the UK], which is a similar organisation to Consumer's Union in the USA.

The American based reader will also need to realise that most UK skiers will be booking a 7-14 day package (which includes flights, usually charter for Europe, transfer and accomodation) with one of the large UK tour operators. Many will be booking accomodation ("chalets") which doesn't show up in the normal hotel guides for the resort since it is run exclusively by the tour company (and can be very cost effective, the operators will often sell the accomodation seperately). Another point for the independant and USA based skier is that UK tour companies often get discounts on lift passes booked through them (5-10% in Europe, 30-40% in USA).

This book is an excellent guide to the world's best ski resorts. While it is true that Europe is more heavily covered in this book; the largest of the North American resorts are reviewed as well (Vail, Breckenridge, Whistler, Killington, etc.). There are even some details provided on other locations (South America, New Zealand, Japan), although not as in depth. One of the nice features of the book is that it rates each resort for beginners, intermediates, experts, off-piste, and snowboarders. The book provides an honest assessment of the pros and cons of each resort (nightlife, accessibility, snow quality, etc.). Highly recommended for planning a long ski vacation. Trail maps are provided although not very detailed due to space limitations.

A valuable piece of information for those who are taking their first step into the Star Wars online community.

I found some great unique sites and had alot of fun

An excellent desk top companion that I refer to before searching the web for Star Wars. The short profiles are helpful so I don't have to waste my time on lousy sites listed in search engines.

There is stuff in here I never knew existed. It's cool because if you want screensavers there's a list of sites listed for just that, if you want Obi Wan info there are sites listed for that, etc. The book has lots of deep links, that way you can skip those boring "Welcome to my site" pages.

The Problem with Internet Guides is they become outdated even before they hit the store shelves. This book is a great example of that, there is very old information, and missing sites that I personally believe are more informative and useful than the ones listed. It is more useful to go to an online site directory or search engine for free, rather than pay money for a book, that will become outdated VERY fast.

Guides to colleges tend to convey either statistical reportage derived from the college itself or anecdotal subjectivity provided by the school's students and other constituencies.

The Barron's Guides lean strongly in the first of these two directions.

You get information on the demographics of the student body, admission percentages, faculty qualifications, tuition prices and room and board (sometimes out of date or rounded down by the time it hits these pages), average SAT and ACT scores, and a ranking provided by Barron's or its suppliers (most competitive, very competitive, etc.). After using Barron's and another couple of guides with my two college-bound sons, I believe the competitiveness ratings tend to be generous. Many schools are rated surprisingly high and there is no category entitled 'You'd have to really hate your child to send him to this joint.' We all know there should be.

There is also information on international students, disabled students, campus security, and similar categories.

You get a lot of good data here. What you don't get is color commentary. For that, you'll need to make a campus visit or buy a guide like the one published by the Princeton Review. It rates fewer arguably more select colleges and universities, whereas Barron's attempts to be exhaustive on a state-by-state basis.

I'm not sure there's any specific reason, but it seems that counselors trust the information in Barron's more than other guides, but it may have to do with the fact that it's been around for almost thirty years. The CD-rom is pretty helpful for searching for schools by major, by location, by price tag and several other variables.

The problem with listing just about every four year college is that you're not going to have much space for in-depth description. The entries are dry but factual and makes comparisons very easy. Noticeably there are many schools that don't list their SAT medians in Barron's when the information can be found in other books such as Princeton Review's. My suspicion is that Barron's is the one being honest -- the precise information isn't being made available. However, I have to admit I buy the other guides also to see what scores they are reporting anyway.

If a student isn't considering one of the top 350 or so schools or wants more choices than most books offer, then he or she probably needs a book such as this. Frankly, if the book and software are available at a library I might sooner suggest looking at it there, and then buying a more in-depth guide such as Fiske, Princeton Review or Barron's own guide to the "best" colleges as this book may frustrate high school seniors who want some sort of opinion from the college students themselves instead of just statistics their parents want to know.

I've been using this book for awhile and I have found it thorough and pretty accurate. I like the way it is organized by state. Once you have a list of schools you should then go to the web for more information, but this is a great way to get that initial list put together. Alas, I could not get the CD to work - but that was probably just me!

This book is excellent for the college student or teacher seeking to obtain statistical data about colleges and universities. Detailed information about the college, town, student profiles, enrollment, degree programs, standardized test scores and teacher backgrounds are provided. In NYS alone,
teaching colleges have the following percentages of PhDs:
o State University at Alfred 8%
o School of the Visual Arts 36%
o Friends World Program 70%
o Berkeley College 33%
o Boricua College - Min

o 5 Towns 42%
o College of Aeronautics 10%
o Dominica College 46%
o D ' Youville College 60%
o Hartwick and Hilbert-min
o Mannes College-Min
o Marymount Manhattan- Min
o Keoka, Excelsior and Molloy-Min
o Webb Institute

The book is a solid value for any student seeking quality
information about a plethora of collegiate programs

I have been through the college search once before, and now am at it again with my daughter who is a HS junior. There are several of these mammoth guides out there. How does this one stack up?

"Barron's Profiles of American Colleges 2007" (1656 pages) is divided up in several sections. The first part brings a listing of which majors are provided by what colleges. This was a very handy tool for my daughter, who has very specific ideas as to what majors she is interested in. This section also ranks the colleges in competitiveness/exclusivity (going from "Most Competitive" to "Highly Competitive" etc. all the way down to "Noncompetitive". After that the book brings an overview, thankfully state-by-state, about 1700 colleges. It focuses mostly on the "hard" data such as admittance criteria, tuition and room/boarding fees, etc. As such this book is also handy. What you will not not get is the more subjective assessments on what it's really like at a particular college, but there are other college guides for that, such as Princeton's "The Best 361 Colleges".

Due to its massive size (and weight), the book is somewhat hard to use, but generally speaking this is not a bad place to start off the college info gathering process. There is also a CD-Rom which I must admit we have not used.

Don't waste your money unless this publication is finally updated. You can get all the info free on-line anyway. It was great though when it was current for about 5 minutes.

I have found this book invaluable in two ways. First, I run a non-profit theatre company that occasionally does gay works. Second, I'm a freelance writer myself and am always looking for places to have my writing published. This book gives me all the info I could possibly need both for sending out my theatre press releases and for approaching publications as a writer. Not just complete info on guidelines, addresses, etc., but also -- and this is important for me -- e-mail addresses for almost every listing. That allows me to do bulk e-mails and save TONS of money...

I write a column on gay and lesbian issues that appears in many GLBT newspapers across the country. It appears in quite a few more thanks to this book.In the past, I have had to rely on word of mouth, friends, and personal visits to different cities to find gay and lesbian papers around the country. There have been previous attempts at publishing lists of gay and lesbian papers, but until now, none of them have offered e-mail addresses.This book is a great aid in locating potential markets for my column precisely because it gives quick and easy e-mail addresses and editors names. With the help of this book, I increased the number of newspapers that pay me for my column by about one-third. I would say this book is an essential tool for any writer who wants to place his or her work in local gay and lesbian publications.One problem that may well be beyond the control of the author of this book is that editors at gay and lesbian publications change frequently, so the listing is sometimes out of date already. But as a general rule, it was incredibly helpful in helping me (eventually) get to the right person at a publication to pitch my work.A few suggestions for improvement: Under each publication heading, a little spacing and formatting would have made it much easier to quickly pick out a contact person's name and e-mail address. I suspect most of us using this book these days will go for the e-mail addresses rather than the mailing addresses, and sometimes those felt "buried."Some editors did an excellent job of telling you what kind of publication they put out; however, comments from other editors were so vague I felt I was sending a blind pitch. It would help if Paul could somehow arm twist the rest of the editors to do a better job at telling us more about their publication needs.Finally, I would encourage Paul to include major gay and lesbian web sites, such as PlanetOut or Gay.com, in upcoming editions.In balance, however, let me re-iterate that this book gave me a nice boost in my customer base (which is local gay and lesbian newspapers.) I would gladly purchase a follow-up edition on an annual basis.

This book is primarily organized to help writers find appropriate outlets in the queer press. In that sense, the book can be described as a kind-of "Queer Writers Market." No doubt, writers will gain the most from its format.

As an activist, my needs are different than those strictly akin to the writing craft. But this book is still a unique and valuable resource for activists like me. Finally, I can to go to one source in order to distribute a national press release, thus solving a problem that has confounded activists for years! Without a doubt, this book saved me countless hours of research drudgery, and probably with much better results than I could have achieved on my own.

As noted in the introduction, however, queer publications rise and fall continuously. Thus, even though I used the guide only four months after publication, a number of media contacts are already out of date. Of course, this is not a problem with the author, but it demonstrates the difficulty of tracking a quickly moving target.

I would rate this book with five stars except for three reasons: 1) The format for each listing could be more consistent. 2) Because accuracy is critical to any guidebook, a better proofreading effort could eliminate the few typographical errors I found. 3) The index only lists the publications in alphabetical order. It would also be helpful to index the publications according to their focus, such as: national news, erotica, niche market, entertainment, local news, commentary, etc.

Of course, these criticisms do not detract from the essential worth of The Queer Press Guide. I am sure it will be on my "must buy" list every time it is updated.

Paul Harris has performed a huge and impressive labor of love in gathering these crucial resources into The Queer Press Guide. This book will be INVALUABLE to writers, arts organizations and community activists all over the country! A must have on EVERYONE'S desk!

This book is a bit too simplistic but if used as a reference, looking up what you need via the index, it is fine. Otherwise it reads like a dictionary or an encyclopedia.

I have been interested in Genealogy for some time now and never thought it was possible to pursue it so thoroughly the Internet! One of the reasons that I bought this book is that I am not an "Internet expert" by any stretch. In the process of learning how to find information on genealogy I learned a few things about my computer. I live way up in Canada and regardless of where you live, this book is a must have for anyone interested in the subject.

I especially liked the step-by-step process that begins with teaching you first how to use the necessary tools to accomplish your goals and ending with results you were after. In any subject that interests me I hate to buy a book that reminds me of the dry texts I read back in school. I have seen them while wandering bookstores and despite the fact the subject interests me I will not buy it. This book was nothing like any of those books, which was very refreshing.

* Helps anyone not particularly well versed in the Internet get started with learning the necessary tools.
* Takes a well thought out step-by-step approach to attainting your ultimate goal.
* I thought it was very well laid out and easy to read.

It seems there's a new computer-genealogy "how to" book being released every month -- more the result of the marketing department's presumed wisdom than because we need yet another such volume. This is especially true when genealogy is simply one in a long line of topics: There are now "Unofficial Guides" to wine, children, stock picking, job interviews, and menopause. However, each volume in this series is prepared with the assistance of a panel of experts -- in this case Matthew Helm (publisher of the JOURNAL OF ONLINE GENEALOGY), John Scroggins (who received the FGS Award of Merit for his efforts in increasing public access to government files of interest to family researchers), and Tim Stowell (active in the USGenWeb project). Actually, the advice and information you'll receive here is pretty good, including setting up a computer workspace, the difference between primary and secondary sources, setting your research goals, managing your information as you find it, how to find genealogy web sites (method as well as a list of addresses), strategic tips for online research, the proper use of search engines and online library catalogs, creating personal genealogy web pages, and publishing a book as well as publishing to the web. The style is not unlike the popular "Dummies' Guides," with tips, time-savers, caveats, and informative sidebars scattered throughout.

Author Pamela Rice Hahn has written a book that is aimed at genealogists hoping to learn more about using the power and advantages of the Internet to assist them in their search for information about their ancestors. Each chapter in the book covers the basics of learning about genealogy while recommending web sites that will supplement the information presented.
The first chapter describes some of the common documents that every genealogist needs to have in their family files. Learning what to expect from an online search for records is an important lesson. Even though the number of vital records available online is increasing every day, you will still find the bulk of your documents at courthouses, libraries and archives. Chapter 2 gives ideas and tips for organizing your home work space and getting online. Since you are reading this online article, I'll assume that you've handled that part of the setup.

The next two chapters cover organizing all the accumulated papers, charts, and forms that you will be collecting at an alarming rate. The advice I found most helpful was the idea of setting up a research notebook that includes enough information to aid you in your research trips without bogging you down with copies of every record in your collection. This section also includes ideas for setting up a full filing system and choosing a genealogy database software.

Chapter 5 describes the various types of information available online. Choosing a Web-based email service, learning about the options available in full-fledged email programs, and subscribing to newsgroups and email lists are topics that are covered in this chapter. This is followed by a chapter covering some of the major genealogy web sites and how to maximize your time while surfing.

The remaining chapters cover in greater detail the various types of information that you should be collecting and which web sites may offer the most help in your search. Topics include search engine tips, immigration, census records, libraries, courthouse research and preservation of family photographs. Chapter 14 contains suggestions to aid you in setting up your own genealogy web site. Several appendices finish out this content-rich book.

For a lot of people, the courthouse is where the search for the bulk of your family's background research begins. This book has great information on how to go about getting the most out of that research.

*I also like how the author put all of the links from the book online at GenelogyTips.com. That means I don't have to type them in; she's done it for me!

*I recommend this book because the writing is easy to understand yet full of information.