necessary user rights for reading information from active directories

[Mr.Floppy]

hey there

i'm currently working at a project, where i need to read user information from active directories (i have to do that with vb.net ;))
i already know how that whole thing works, my question is the following:
is it only possible to read information from active directories with the admin account, or does this also work with a restricted account? if so, which rights would this restricted account need, for reading information from active directories?

thanks in advance,
andreas