Using as a backdrop Vannevar Bush's 1945 discussion of the "Memex," his proposed system for organizing and storing information, this paper considers the development of intelligent multimedia knowledge systems. Particular attention is focused on learner needs and intentions in information seeking, and the implications of these factors for the development of intelligent multimedia knowledge systems are considered. The importance of a user-oriented information system is stressed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the possibility of creating hypermedia systems that go beyond the improvement of searching and browsing techniques to create intelligent systems that might almost emulate expert human behavior. (3 figures and 11 references) (EW)