We have recently published the second edition of our Internet resource book entitled, Using the Internet: A resource guide for people concerned about alcohol, tobacco and other drug use problems. We referred to our first edition as Òthe purple bookÓ because of its cover, and this second edition could be called Òthe yellow bookÓ for the same reason. The information resources have been updated, the text has been rewritten, and an index has been added, making this edition something we are quite proud of. For the rest of this Small Bytes column we will give you a guided tour of the resources contained in this new guide and how to use them. The guide is a collaborative effort involving the Minnesota Star of the North Prevention Coalition, the Minnesota Prevention Resource Center and the Minnesota Institute of Public Health.

What is the Internet? The first portion of the book contains background information about the Internet itself. We try to answer some basic questions about the history of the Internet, the tools and components required to access information on the Internet, and try to clear up any confusion about what is and is not the Internet.

Search engines and search techniques It can be frustrating to find good information on the Internet if you donÕt have some general guidelines. In our section on search engines and search techniques we recommend some strategies for narrowing your searches and getting to the information you are looking for. We also list some of the search engines that we have found useful, including tools that can be used for finding street and e-mail addresses.

Virtual tour of the Internet One new section in our Internet book is our Virtual Tour of the Internet. This section will lead you on a tour of some of the Web sites we find helpful in our day to day work. It is written as a travelogue, of sorts, touring around the Internet and looking at interesting prevention and news sites.

Categorized Internet resources The bulk (and heart) of the guide is a categorized listing of World Wide Web sites that can be helpful for people concerned about alcohol, tobacco and other drug use problems. We have reorganized the categories to be more succinct and hopefully more useful for finding the information you are looking for. The categories are as follows:

• Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs
• Community Asset Building and Healthy Communities
• Cultural Resources
• Government and Legislation
• Health Care and HMOs
• Health and Health Promotion
• Media
• Organizational Resources (including grant and funding resources)
• Parents, Youth and Families
• Violence

Mailing lists Electronic mailing lists can be useful for gathering information and for interacting with other concerned people. We have included a small selection of regional and national electronic mailing lists that we find useful.

Site index In this edition we have added a site index to make it easy to find Web sites listed in our book. The index contains an alphabetical list of all of the Web sites and mailing lists, along with their page number. If you canÕt find the description for a site, or just want to quickly scan the available Web sites, the index is the place to go.

Ordering information To place your order call 612-427-5310, MN 800-247-1303 or e-mail mprc-order@miph.org.

1-99 $5.00 + postage
100-199 $4.00 + postage
200 or more $3.00 + postage

Happy Surfing!