Book excerpt: This book is a thoroughly arranged anthology outlining the state of the art in the emerging area of visual informationsystems. The chapters presented are a selection of thoroughly refereed and revised full papers first presented at the First International Conference on visual Information Systems held in February 1996. Next generation information systems have a high visual content, and there will be a shift in emphasis from a paradigm of predominantly alphanumeric data processing to one of visual information processing. The book provides a detailed introductory chapter, two keynotes by leading authorities, sections on design and architecture, database management and modelling, contend-based search and retrieval, feature extraction and indexing, query model and interface, and object recognition and content organization.