Abstract
Database publishers face a highly complex future because of competing technological developments and an increased diversity of user environments. The need to begin understanding the challenge by analyzing user information behavior is addressed and behaviors specific to aerospace scientists and engineers are analyzed. Visions for integrated database access at the individual desktop are reviewed and compared with a segmented reality. The challenges for database publishers are presented as digitizing the data into a standard format, improving and redefining quality, and confronting difficult business and policy issues. The need for cooperation is stressed.