In 1962, Harvard sociologist Daniel Bell began distributing and discussing a draft paper in which he introduced the concept of the "post-industrial" or "information" society. This idea has been the subject of intense and often insightful analysis by proponents and critics from a vast range of disciplinary sites. Until now, the library profession has looked at the implications of Bell's ideas without the benefit of knowledge or understanding of the critical debate in the broader context. This book surveys and critically assesses the massive interdisciplinary literature on the post-industrial "information society" and its implications for library and information service in the United States. If library and information scientists are to make critical progress in their attempts to understand the present and plan for the future, they must understand the significant body of literature dealing with the issue, especially the second generation of scholarship that has emerged over the past decade. The book contains the following chapters: (1) The Information Age; (2) Librarians Confront the Post-Industrial Era; (3) State, Capital, and National Information Policy; (4) Neutrality, Objectivity, Information Professionals, and Librarians; (5) Work in the Post-Industrial Era; (6) Conclusion: A Prologema to Library and Information Services in the Post-Industrial Era. Author and subject indices are provided. (Contains 508 references.) (Author/SWC)