AskERIC was begun as a pilot project by the ERIC system of the US Department of Education in the fall of 1992. Since its inception, the project has grown from a pilot study to one of the major education digital libraries on the Internet. Major issues in creating and maintaining Internet services are explored, particularly the use of user input to drive and shape the service. It is the emphasis on the user and the inclusion of the human intermediary that makes AskERIC a model for other Internet services