  We discuss how distributed designs that draw from biological network
metaphors can largely improve the current state of information retrieval and
knowledge management of distributed information systems. In particular, two
adaptive recommendation systems named TalkMine and @ApWeb are discussed in more
detail. TalkMine operates at the semantic level of keywords. It leads different
databases to learn new and adapt existing keywords to the categories recognized
by its communities of users using distributed algorithms. @ApWeb operates at
the structural level of information resources, namely citation or hyperlink
structure. It relies on collective behavior to adapt such structure to the
expectations of users. TalkMine and @ApWeb are currently being implemented for
the research library of the Los Alamos National Laboratory under the Active
Recommendation Project. Together they define a biologically motivated
information retrieval system, recommending simultaneously at the level of user
knowledge categories expressed in keywords, and at the level of individual
documents and their associations to other documents. Rather than passive
information retrieval, with this system, users obtain an active, evolving
interaction with information resources.
