In 1970, Alvin Toffler coined the phrase "information overload" in his book Future Shock.¹ Now, almost 30 years later, almost everyone not only knows what "information overload" is, but they also know what it feels like: overwhelming, frustrating, and even defeating.

Richard Saul Wurman's 1989 book Information Anxiety carries Toffler's concept one step further by explaining the process that leads to information overload, what he calls "information anxiety." According to Wurman, "Information anxiety is produced by the every-widening gap between what we understand and what we think we should understand. Information anxiety is the black hole between data and knowledge. It happens when information desn't tell us what we want or need to know."² Wurman also warns that information anxiety limits people to being only seekers of knowledge because no time is left over for them to be reflectors of knowledge.

This book was written for every faculty member, department chair, dean, academic vice president, and president who understands first hand the reality of "information anxiety." This book is for those who realize that today no one in higher education can escape from information overload, either on campus or at home. Answering a few of the following sample questions quickly proves the point.

• How many journals in your field do you regularly review?
• How do you keep up with critical educational concerns and developments on issues like student retention and teaching portfolios?
• How many interesting websites have you discovered?
• How do you decide which to respond to first in the morning: e-mail, voice mail, telephone message slips, faxes, or regular mail? What if you only have 20 minutes before your first meeting?
• How many books have you taken time to read in the past year, and how do you keep up with world news?
• How will you select the best and most appropriate care facility for your aging parents?
• What school options are the best for your children?
• Should you buy or lease a car?

Of course dealing with this information explosion is by no means limited to campus leaders. In fact, current students will face all these same information challenges--and many more--throughout their lives because information overload will only increase in the future. By 2020, for example, the available body of information is expected to double every 73 days!³ How will these students find the information they need in this coming tidal wave of information? How will they deal with the anxiety caused by this information overload?

This book addresses all these questions and more, but it also seeks answers that can be easily implemented on most campuses. For instance, chapter 1 traces the interesting chain of events in higher education that forged the current information literacy movement and cites the key individuals and organizations that shaped it. Chapter 2 explores the importance of moving to resource-based learning (learning that makes use of the full range of available information resources) to create a more active learning environment that prepares students to become independent lifelong learners. Chapter 3 highlights general education and nonsubject-specific approaches to information literacy that have been used successfully on campuses, while chapter 4 highlights successful discipline-specific models.

Chapters 5 and 6 deal with the challenges that face campus leaders who commit to information literacy programs; these challenges range from overcoming resistance from faculty and librarians to finding needed resources. Chapter 7 provides practical steps for implementing a campus information literacy program, and the "Postscript for Early Leaders" highlights key areas that still need to be addressed. The first three appendices provide substantive background for the information literacy movement by providing the 1989 national report on information literacy (Appendix A), the list of current members of the National Forum on Information Literacy (Appendix B), and the 1989 national report on an information survey of campus information literacy programs (Appendix C). Appendices D and E offer two particularly interesting campus information literacy documents.

This book is a practical, easy-to-use guide for campus leaders who are working to ensure that their graduates of today and tomorrow are capable of success in this Information Age--in business, in their personal lives, and as citizens. If this goal is ever to be reached, higher education must provide students with survival tactics like those described in this book.

1. Alvin Toffler, Future Shock (New York: Bantam Books, 1990), 350.
   
2. Richard Saul Wurman, Information Anxiety (New York: Doubleday, 1989), 222.
   
3. James B. Appleberry, "Changes in our Future: How Will We Cope?," Faculty speech presented at California State University, Long Beach, California, August 28, 1992.