The growing pressures and the complex conditions which now bear upon research libraries are not adequately reflected in the development of policies, plans or current service activities. In the place of current, reliable, and extensive information which might be reflected in decisions and actions, librarians seem to operate normally on the basis of only a few guidelines and these typically are rather outdated, arbitrary, and indiscriminate, especially in the way they seek to serve the various special fields represented in research. Improvement in the adequacy of library plans and decisions could be expected by systematically accumulating and disseminating greater quantities of new and descriptive information concerned with the broader environment of research libraries. (Author/MM)