SDI services and systems are most important components of information services.rnHowever, they are also widely reported to be resource intensive and time-consuming forrnboth the service providers and users. As a result, despite the immense contribution they arernproved to provide, they are rarely implemented in developing countries whose informationrnsystems and services are mainly characterized by paucity of resources. In particular, previous studies have repeatedly stated that the creation and maintenance ofrnthe user profile is the most problematic component. This thesis research investigated in tornthe problems of this particular component with the view to apply an advanced ArtificialrnIntelligence techno logy known as interface agents which are a type of software systemsrngenerally called agents. To this end, the SDI user profile management problems arernanalyzed taking a case SDI system known as Aerialists of the International LivestockrnResearch Institute (ILRI), Addis Ababa. This has enabled to discover numerous ways inrnwhich agent technology could bring about improvements on SDI user profile management.rnFurthermore, the review of the literature has shown that the technology is already beingrnemployed in systems which are similar to, or enhancements of, SDI systems like thoserncommonly known as filtering systems that are developed for Internet resources. Drawing on these findings, an agent-oriented modelling of the user profile managementrnprocess has been made and some of the basic methods and procedures suggested in thisrnmodel have been demonstrated by developing a prototype agent. Using this agent, somernsmall scale testing of the performance of the suggested methods have been made takingrnfew test data from ILRIAlerts users. The prototype development and tests have indicatedrnthe possibility of employing agent methods to SDI user profile management