relating features from seperate shapefiles

I cannot remember how to complete this seemingly simple task. I have a points shapefile which I would like to append with a feature class populated with a unique field in a seperate line shapefile (same data frame) - each point carrying the data of the nearest line feature. Any help would be welcome. I did this once during the SFSU certificate program, over seven years ago, and cannot recall/find the best wway to do it.
Daniel.Farnan@sfdpw.org