This study examines the information sources used by practicing rural physicians in North Dakota to keep current with new information in their area of specialty. The hypotheses tested were: (1) there are more male than female rural practitioners in North Dakota; (2) rural physicians depend on printed material to fulfill regular need for information related to their practice; (3) rural physicians fulfill their information need by frequently using local medical reference libraries; (4) rural physicians have a demand for only a limited number and type of information from medical libraries; (5) a large number attend professional meetings and conferences to fill the void of face-to-face contact with colleagues; (6) utilization patterns vary significantly between general practitioners and specialists; (7) practitioners, who have recently taught medical students vary significantly in their mean score on the extent of information sources used; and (8) age of the rural physician has a significant effect on the extent of information used. Data were collected by a survey of 278 rural health care practitioners in North Dakota. The study used simple descriptive statistical analysis to test the first five hypotheses, and a multivariate technique, ANOVA, to test the last three hypotheses. Results yielded support for all hypotheses. More efforts should focus on bringing better machines (such as on-line computer searches and facsimile machines) and programs to rural physicians to meet their information needs. (KS)