This special issue of Electronic Networking: Research, Applications and Policy focuses on the issues of networked information retrieval and on specific tools for successfully retrieving networked information. These topics are discussed widely on electronic lists on a daily basis. Networked Information Retrieval (NIR) is widely seen in the literature of information and library science as well as computing journals. NIR issues and tools are crucial to the future of information technologies. These are all different venues with various voices. This special issue is designed to provide a coherent and comprehensive discussion of these topics, a moderated forum if you will. But even as this special issue is completed, the topics, policy issues, and research questions regarding NIR are growing and expanding rapidly.