We have recently completed a survey of the operational use of hypertext-based information systems in academic, public and special libraries in the UK. A literature search, questionnaire and both telephone and face-to-face interviews demonstrate that the principal application of hypertext systems is for the implementation of public-access point-ofinformation systems, which provide guidance to the users of local information resources. In this paper, we describe the principal issues relating to the design and usage of these systems that were raised in the interviews and that we experienced when using the systems for ourselves. We then present a set of technical recommendations with the intention of helping the developers of future systems, with special attention being given to the need to develop effective methods for system evaluation.