There is nothing new about intelligent information retrieval-it has been around for centuries. When a professor asks a search intermediary to conduct a background search for a literature survey, or a stockbroker asks an assistant to alert him of any takeover rumors coming "over the wire," or an executive asks his secretary to get him everything in the files about Project XXX, they are ail requesting intelligent information retrieval. The difference between these scenarios and those presented in this article is that now systems are being developed to allow users to place their requests with a computer rather than a human assistant.Technological advances have led to new problems and new solutions. The number, size, and contents of online databases has grown. Finding relevant information is truly a "needle in a haystack" proposition. In one study of inexperienced searchers, one-quarter of the subjects were unable to pass a benchmark test of minimum searching skill (Borgman, 1986). Even experienced searchers could improve their search results (Fenichel, 1981).The systems surveyed here use different approaches to helping end users perform their own searches. They assist during the query formulation stage (in which the user expresses his information need in a precise manner) and/or the query reformulation stage (in which the query is iteratively modified based on search results). They all provide user interfaces which shield the user *Current address: