There have been many descriptions and characterizations of information through the years, some very broad, some narrow and some humorous. Information may be hard to define but it can be categorized. There are several characteristics of information: Factual, analytical. subjective or objective. Information can be found in primary, secondary or tertiary sources depending on how original the materials are or how much they have been interpreted or condensed by others.  The type, quality and amount of information has changed greatly through the ages, but a human's ability to process the information has remained the same, creating what some call information overload. Which brings us to the purpose of this course - to help you become "information literate."

This guide has been provided to assist you in this course and is broken down into tabs:

What Is It? will help define just what the term information really means.

Characteristics presents the differences between types of information such as factual, analytical, subjective, and objective.

Information Chain defines the sources of information and how, the further away from the original source, information can be filtered, manipulated, and otherwise changed.

Information Overload discusses the issue of too much information and the difficulty of tracking down appropriate sources.

Information Ages presents the need of information through four major time periods.

The Challenge poses the problem that despite advances in information storage and retrieval technology, our capacity to understand and synthesize information has remained constant.

Information Literacy defines this term and ultimately the goals of this course.