The Defense Department Scientific and Technical Information (STI) network is composed of over 200 technical libraries and information centers tied together by the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), an organization which seeks to improve the flow of information throughout the STI network by promoting shared cataloging and integrated retrieval systems. As part of the requirements definition for an automated system to support the STI network, a questionnaire was sent to 238 users, who were asked to rank 25 functions as essential, useful, or marginal in an automated system and provide information on library characteristics. On the basis of the responses received from 85 organizations (a response rate of 36%), it was determined that available technologies should be assembled into an integrated system running on one computer and accessible by any user over a single video display terminal. Initiated at the request of the Shared Bibliographic Input Network (SBIN) member libraries, the development of such a system became the objective of the Local Automation Model project, which will offer libraries and information centers a fully resident computer system supporting local collection cataloging, retrieval, and circulation management and control. In addition, the system's intelligent gateway will allow users to interconnect and share information with geographically remote, heterogeneous computers and databases, thus reducing the duplication of intellectual and manual effort associated with acquiring new STI holdings. Survey results are discussed, and the characteristics of the survey respondents are presented in 12 bar charts. References are also provided. (KM)