This guide offers an overview of important areas in operating a disability-related information and referral center (I&R) and contains many design and management suggestions. The guide is written for individuals operating or designing a "grassroots" information and referral center with only a few employees but a fair number of volunteers, serving a primary audience within a limited radius of the local community, with limited funding. The guide explores, in basic terms, the function of information and referral centers in the disability field; the process of organizing an I&R; how to put together and organize a basic resource collection; the daily functioning of an I&R; staffing an I&R, including the role of information specialists; the nature of the information and referrals an I&R provides; the necessity of outreach; effective dissemination processes for timely responses to the I&R's audience; and the importance of evaluating the I&R's work. (Contains 33 references.) (JDD)