Melding concepts drawn from Library and Information Studies scholar and theorist Elfreda Chatman and philosopher Jurgen Habermas, Burnett and Jaeger present a multi-level theory of "Information Worlds" to investigate the ways in which information creates the social worlds of people.

Introduction Acknowledgments 1. Theory, Information, and Society 2. Information Worlds 3. Information Value 4. The Evolution of Information Access and Exchange 5. Public Libraries in the Public Sphere 6. Information Worlds and Technological Change 7. News, Media, and Information Worlds 8. Information Worlds and the Political World 9. Applications of the Theory of Information Worlds 10. The Future of Information Theory Bibliograpy Index

Paul T. Jaeger is an Assistant Professor in the College of Information Studies and Director of the Center for Information Policy and Electronic Government at the University of Maryland. He is also the Associate Editor of Library Quarterly, and the author of more than seventy journal articles and book chapters, along with six books.

Gary Burnett, Ph.D., has been an Associate Professor at the College of Communication and Information of Florida State University since 1996. Dr. Burnett is the author of a book on the American poet H.D., and his research has appeared in a number of journals.