This doctoral dissertation discusses access to film and video works. Physical and intellectual access to moving image documents is insufficient, often insignificant, at the level of the individual user. Existing access tools suffer from a lack of recognition of the differences between linguistic text communication and image communication. Browsing and relevance judgements are made difficult by the physical realities of film and video documents - one cannot flip through them - and by the habits of serial and passive viewing.

This document reports the results of the evaluation study commissioned in response to the Government Information Locator Service (GILS) Board's request for an assessment of GILS. The study began in September 1996, data collection ended in March 1997, and the final report was completed in June 1997. The goal of the study was to understand how: GILS serves various user groups, GILS improves public access to government information, agencies are progressing with their implementations, and GILS works as a tool for information resources management.