REQUIREMENTS OF A PILOT INFORMATION SERVICE FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH WERE INVESTIGATED BY ISOLATING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF DOCUMENTS JUDGED RELEVANT BY QUESTIONERS (USERS). IN ADDITION, RETRIEVAL STRATEGIES WERE COMPARED ON THE BASIS OF THE RELEVANCE AND RECALL FACTORS FOR EACH STRATEGY. THE FOLLOWING CONCLUSIONS WERE REACHED--(1) IN PROGRAMING QUESTIONS, THE NUMBER OF WORDS REQUIRED IN COMBINATION IS OF GREATER SIGNIFICANCE THAN THE TYPE OF WORDS REQUIRED, AS FAR AS RETRIEVAL OR RELEVANT AS OPPOSED TO PERIPHERAL OR NONRELEVANT ANSWERS IS CONCERNED, (2) THE RELATED WORDS WHICH A PROGRAMER ADDS TO AN ORIGINAL STATEMENT OF A QUESTION ARE USEFUL AS INDEXING AND EVALUATING WORDS, ALTHOUGH THEIR INDEXING EFFECTIVENESS IS LOWER THAN THAT OF QUESTION WORDS, (3) A SEMANTIC CODE LEADS FROM THE QUESTION WORDS TO VERY FEW, ADDITIONAL INDEXING TERMS, (4) TITLES NEED NOT BE RECORDED ON TAPE AS SEPARATE ENTITIES, AND (5) THE INFORMATION IN TELEGRAPHIC ABSTRACTS SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN CONVENTIONAL ABSTRACTS. (TC)