This study is aimed at designing an improved Informationrnretrieval system (IRS) for the agricultural research sectorrnin Uganda . For this reason, a survey was conducted tornascertain the information retrieval facilities available inrnthe libraries of the National Agricultural ResearchrnOrganization (NARO) , Uganda as well as the information needsrnof the users. The survey was necessary as a basis forrndeveloping an improved IRS.rnThe AgriculturalrnUgandan economy.rnsector is the enginernIt employs nearly 90%rnof growth of thernof the country ' srnpopulation and contributes to over 64% to the governmentrnrevenue, over 50% of the GDP and over 90% of the totalrnexports. The agricultural research sector, under NARO, has tornmeet the challenge of developing improved technologies thatrncan be used by the farmers.rnFindings of this study show that the existing informationrnfacilities / l ibraries are not adequate for the needs of thernmajority of the research sc i entists in NARO, let alone otherrnusers in the agricultural sector . In most cases therninformation needed i s not available in the libraries a t theirrninstitutes. Scientists have to search for requiredrninformat i on from NADIC, other l ibr aries or use a l ternat i vernsources of information such as the invisible college. On thernother hand it was established that there were modestrninformation resources at NADIC which could be shared by allresearch scientists in NARO. For this reason, an Informationrnretrieval system (IRS) that is based on E-mail has beenrnproposed. It will enable the users at remote researchrninsti tutes t o access the information resources that arernavailable at a central facility l ocated at the NationalrnAgricultural Documentation and Information Centre (NADIC).rnThe prototype information retrieval system (IRS) comprisesrnof three components: NADISRV, a bibliographic informationrnserver which will facilitate the users at remote institutesrnto search home-grown databases at NADIC without having torntravel from their stations; and a Selective Dissemination ofrnInformation Service that uses bibserve facilities. By usingrnthe databases that are available at NADIC : the E-mailrnassisted SDI service, will periodically update all registeredrnusers about current information in their fields of interest.rnThese services require as a prerequisite the availability ofrnactive databases. The centralized home-grown databases thatrnare already existing at NADIC, namely AGRIN, CARIN, AGRINF,rnand ULIST will be used for this purpose. In addition, twornother prototype databases have been established using MicrornCDS/ISIS software . The first one is AGREXP , a database ofrnprofiles of experts in the broad agricultural field, and thernsecond, is AGRORG, a database of institutions that a r ernclosely or remotely related to agriculture .rnThe third component of the Information retrieval System (IRS)rnis, the NADIC SEARCH INTERFACE, a user friendly interfacernwhich has been developed using the ISIS Pascal interface. TheNADIC SEARCH INTERFACE will allow both the InformationrnCentre/Library staff and the on-s i te users to int eract withrnthe system in a friendly way, thus making i t easy for thernuse rs t o conduct searches for themselves.rnFinally ,rnproposedrnstrategiesrnprototypernfor implementing andrninformation retri evalrnmanagingrnsystem ,rnrecommendations for further improvements , are suggested.