With the proliferation of electronic information resources now infiltrating learning centres and libraries, librarians are increasingly finding that they are being required to add PC troubleshooting to their list of tasks. This handbook serves as a comprehensive guide to resolving commonly occurring PC problems, and is useful and relevant to both intermediaries and the customers themselves.
It provides a practical guide to resolving issues on a number of topics, including hardware, graphics and utilities software, the Internet, operating systems, networks, security and ergonomics, particularly concentrating on the first three of these. The format within the topics is that of a straightforward “question‐and‐answer” approach, so the reader can browse to the question that is most appropriate to their current problem, and in the majority of cases the questions follow on logically to offer a step‐by‐step guide.
The main strength of this text is its first section, which concentrates on troubleshooting hardware problems, as the format is most conducive for practical, specific queries. However, the section devoted to the Internet does not fare so well in its attempt at comprehensiveness. For example, open questions requiring lengthy explanations – such as “How do I send an e‐mail?” – are inadequately answered on a page. Similarly, the text bravely attempts to cover “Creating a Web site” in 12 pages, clearly a topic that other books are solely devoted to considering.
That aside, the handbook should have a wide audience as it troubleshoots both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer 5 in the Internet section, and Windows 3 and Windows 95 in the hardware and operating systems sections. It is worth bearing in mind, though, that this means it will also date fairly fast.
It is clear that the publication is primarily intended as a reference manual. On occasion the usually thematic organisation of the questions becomes chaotic and certain topics deviate from the general format of offering practical advice, leaning instead towards management principles. Furthermore, the final, and important, chapter on ergonomics extends beyond the purely technological to offer insight into the human factor within computing. Thus there is little consistency in the approach to each section, which is holistically confusing and confirms that the text should be dipped into rather than read in any systematic way.
Finally, the handbook does provide definitions within each chapter so that the reader can both understand what is happening and, if they cannot resolve the problem themselves, can explain it easily to their computing or PC support officers.
In summary, this publication will contain those familiar PC‐related questions that customers approach you with, and provides specific practical advice for resolving the problems. Perfect as a quick reference guide, it is of general relevance and use to librarians and customers alike. However, be aware that it is trying to be all things to all people – and sometimes it tries too hard!
