Yes sir, deciding between Prototype or Jquery. Although I am rather uneducated regarding Javascript as a topic. Any reading you can suggest would help.
Javascript. Java is something else.
Go jQuery though, in my opinion. It lets you do what you need to do without actually knowing javascript, in most cases.
It seems you want to learn Javascript, not Java. Javascript is the language that can be used to manipulate objects on the browser. Prototype and Jquery are written in Javascript.
Sorry! Yes, Javascript.
Yeah, ignore my Java comment. I would start out with just plain ole Javascript.