Three papers on system requirements for on-line and batch retrieval presented at the American Society for Information Science (ASIS) annual meeting are included here. At G.D. Searle, data for records related to pharmacology screening are used in a batch system, and an on-line system is used to search information on mutagenic, carcinogenic, and teratogenic chemical compounds and agents. The second paper explains the balance of batch and on-line services used by librarians to cope with information needs. Multiple data bases, data base output form, and efficient use of the computer are now important issues in library information retrieval. An information retrieval computer at the New England Research Application Center, described in the third paper, operates a fast-batch computer search system which costs less than a system using on-line searches. A summary of the comparison between batch and on-line processing is given in the final document, the ASIS panel discussion. (CH)