looking for a good introduction to MS SQL Server and RDBMS in general

[Kaido]

My company is planning on migrating our systems (circa early 80's) into a unified SQL database with a web-based frontend. So, my summer project is to help develop the SQL database using Microsoft SQL Server. I have just about zero database experience, aside from the basics I learned from class about Access. Also, I'm more familiar with the *nix side of things, so the whole Microsoft programming thing is going to be new. I have a book on the MS server right now, but it is targeted towards users with relational database technology experience, which I don't have. So, database masters, what's the best resource for jumping into RDBMS?