One of the responsibilities of the National Science Foundation (NSF) is to support the effective dissemination of scientific information. The performance of this responsibility requires NSF to evaluate alternative information systems/services which are proposed for this purpose. This responsibility necessitates making decisions which are similar to those demanded from systems managers. This study was undertaken with the aim of contributing to these decision making processes. The desired end product of this study is the development, checkout, and refinement of a set of explicit guidelines for use by individuals who are assigned the role of information system managers. The objective of this initial eight months' effort was threefold: (1) to identify the variables, criteria, and system management features of concern and to classify and relate them, (2) to structure a preliminary version of an integrated system management guide, and (3) to pretest the system management tool by selecting and analyzing alternative information systems. (Author)