The information needs of researchers are being met increasingly from on-line sources provided by governments, fellow researchers and commercial organisations. However, the sheer quantity of information available, together with a lack of coherent organisation, has prevented many researchers from maximising the potential of the Internet in their work. The paper will describe the approach of SOSIG (Social Science Information Gateway) to helping researchers find and access high quality information for use in their work. It draws on research undertaken as part of the European funded project DESIRE (Development of a European Service for Information and Research) into developing standards and methods for resource discovery and description and will provide a review of current progress in this area.

Debra Hiom is a Research Officer at the Institute for Learning and Research Technology, University of Bristol in the UK. She has worked on SOSIG since 1994 and is involved in the DESIRE project.