self help books can be helpful I guess...
depending on the person.
The internet seems intuitive to me. You click a button and you arrive at a search engine, From there it becomes a matter of your willingness to explore and follow bread crumbs. If a person is interested, 10-15 minutes of showing them a few things should be sufficient.
In my experience those who can't or won't learn from doing would not benefit from a self help book. I am sure there are exceptions to this but reading a self help book is a far greater intellectual process than surfing the web.