I'd clean the battery terminals first. If that doesn't fix the problem, it sounds like you need a new battery (or alternator).
As far as hooking up jumper cables:
Hook up the cables to the good battery (go straight to the battery terminals). Place the positive jumper on the positive terminal of the bad battery. Ground the negative cable to the chassis, somewhere away from the battery. To remove, reverse process (remove negative from chassis first).
The idea is to keep sparks away from the battery. Batteries produce Hydrogen gas which is VERY explosive.
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