State educational departments can take the initiative in assisting local resources to undertake the task of exploring alternative perspectives on lifelong learning. To provide leadership for those who plan, develop, and coordinate state programs or establish research priorities, state agencies need to re-examine their role in developing strategies to deal with the adult learner's changing needs. A few suggestions are (1) resource analysis--identify and appraise the range, nature, and use of educational resources in the state; (2) need identification--assess the range and intensity of educationally related interests and concerns among significant groups within the state; (3) guidance programming--identify essential and necessary conditions for designing, staffing, and evaluating a statewide adult guidance system; (4) report analysis--interpret and synthesize a variety of reports (census, manpower, industrial, etc.) to provide a basis for need analysis and long range planning; (5) survey analysis--design and conduct state survey research to identify significant resources as well as critical needs and problems; and (6) other state agency mapping--map agency and organizational territories according to their roles and goals as a basis for developing cooperative alliances to attack critical community problems and expand adult learning opportunities. (CSS)