Three related activities are reported in this study. One is the development of two data banks designed to supply children with information about many aspects of life in world culture. The entire data bank system was piloted by second-grade, middle-class children with self-administering orientation units developed to introduce students to the data retrieval process and to present them with instruction and learning tasks. Second, a set of studies were conducted to explore the use children would make of the banks. These studies led to development of a set of principles on which first-generation information systems can be built for children. Last, several investigations were designed to explore the relevance of the data banks as settings for teaching concepts and inquiry systems from the social sciences and also to explore the utility of the data banks as settings for research into the social science education of children. (Author/DE)