Adult education and information science can be viewed as aspects of the endeavor to communicate collective human knowledge and experience. Where self-learners "need to know" intersects with information and library science skills in meeting user needs, dynamic interaction may take place. Information systems research at Stanford University, Purdue, Lehigh, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and elsewhere has been concerned with determining what is meant by satisfying user needs, clarifying objectively what those needs are, and building systems that meet those needs. (The document includes 13 references and an information services model.) (author/ly)