Graduation is just around the corner and many college students are tying up their running shoes for a spring ritual called "the resumé race."

With resumés and cover letters in hand, graduates are licking envelopes and frantically faxing their credentials to potential employers. But there is an easier way to distribute a resumé without paying high faxing costs or getting numb tongues from sealing countless envelopes.

Desperate job seekers can now post their resumés and cover letters to numerous job banks on the Internet. All listed job banks are free and offer valuable information on resume writing, interviewing, career searches, and networking.

The following list includes some of the better job boards and career services available online.

1. The Job Board, at http://www.io.org/~jwsmith/jobs.html, allows users to post both their resumés and cover letters. Most job positions listed are for those seeking careers in computer programming. This text-only web site works more like the newspaper classifieds, assigning each user an individual number to use when sending employers a copy of their resumé.

2. E-SPAN: The Interactive Employment Network, at http://www.espan.com, provides not only a place to post a resumé to 1,700 employers offering over 2,500 paid job openings, but also information on career fairs, salary guides, resume tips, and networking advice. E-SPAN also spotlights top companies hiring on the Internet and supplies users with the latest version of their Occupational Outlook Handbook. Different job fields are represented, from administration to game design. E-SPAN also plans to list information on finance management and skills assessment, as well as creating a future support group chat session.

3. Career Mosaic, at http://www.careermosaic.com/cm/, includes sections on employers, job listings, college networking, and their supporting advertising firm, Bernard Hodes Advertising. Their college section not only lists employers exclusively looking for college graduates, but also provides links to university home pages, the Yahoo Education Directory from Stanford, and the Dewey Web where students can contact one another.

4. The Monster Board, at http://www.monster.com, supplies section titles such as cyberfair, employer profiles, career search, virtual help and even a site to download Mosaic software. Users can limit their career search options to job disciplines, job industries, locations, titles, and specific companies.