User education and information literacy for the next decade: An international perspective

Abstract

In the Information Age, people become information processors, as they read, listen to news, talk to each other, and watch television or computer screens. Yet many have not developed the appropriate skills to process information effectively. In itself, more information is not necessarily better or helpful; still it requires that information users become adept in dealing with it. Currently, more new information is being produced than ever before (e.g., more new information has been produced in the last 30 years than in the previous 5,000). Approximately 1,000 books are published internationally every day; 9,600 periodical titles are published in the United States each year; and the volume of all printed knowledge doubles every eight years. Add to that the enormous amount of electronic information now available on CD‐ROMs, tapes, discs, and online through the Internet and the concept of information overload and information anxiety gains new meaning.

Citation

Rader, H.B. (1996), "User education and information literacy for the next decade: An international perspective", Reference Services Review, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 71-75. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb049282