THE STORAGE AND INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEM (STAIRS), ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED BY IBM FOR ITS OWN USE, PERMITS A NUMBER OF USERS - EACH SITTING AT A TYPEWRITER OR VIDEO DISPLAY TERMINAL CONNECTED TO THE COMPUTER - TO CONCURRENTLY POSE THEIR QUERIES, MODIFY AND REFINE THESE QUERIES IN ON-LINE INTERACTION WITH THE COMPUTER, BROWSE THROUGH THE SET OF RETRIEVED DOCUMENTS, AND REQUEST HARD-COPY PRINTOUT OF DESIRED DOCUMENTS. INPUT, SIGN-ON, AND SEARCH PROCEDURES ARE BRIEFLY DESCRIBED. THE USER CAN FORMULATE HIS QUERIES IN THE WORDS AND PHRASES OF HIS DISCIPLINE AND REFINE THEM IN A STEP-BYSTEP DIALOGUE WITH THE COMPUTER UNTIL THE RELEVENT INFORMATION IS FOUND. AUTHOR ABSTRACT MODIFIED