David P. Dillard writes “There has been concern and stronger over the current administration’s
plans to greatly alter the ERIC
information system and the availability of
ERIC resources on the internet,
by eliminating the ERIC Clearinghouse
system that has produced and made
available a very extensive body of
information of great importance to
people in all facets of education at
all education levels and elimination
of free access to ERIC through
AskERIC.
This message was just posted recently, on
GOVDOC-L.
David P. Dillard writes “There has been concern and stronger over the current administration’s
plans to greatly alter the ERIC
information system and the availability of
ERIC resources on the internet,
by eliminating the ERIC Clearinghouse
system that has produced and made
available a very extensive body of
information of great importance to
people in all facets of education at
all education levels and elimination
of free access to ERIC through
AskERIC.
This message was just posted recently, on
GOVDOC-L.The Department is running a
competition to select a contractor to maintain
the database portion of ERIC.
This “new” ERIC is expected to begin
operating in mid-October 2003.
There will be a brief period of overlap as
the Clearinghouses wind down
operations and the centralized contractor
gets up and running.
There will no longer be any
subject-specific Web sites or subject-area
reference services or publications
such as ERIC Digests available after
December 31, 2003. The AskERIC
free online reference service will also be
discontinued at that time.
If you’re interested in an analysis of all the
changes to come, you may wish
to visit the Web site maintained by Kate
Corby, a Michigan State University librarian.
See in particular her analysis of the government’s
Statement of Work for the new ERIC:
http://www.lib.msu.edu/corby/
education/eric/sowanalysis.htm>
Posted this Spring:
K12> No Child Left Behind, Except ERIC
http://www.freelists.org/archives/
nethappenings/05-2003/msg00046.html>
Make a Shorter Link
http://makeashorterlink.com/?D2DF21095
Posted Last Fall
Brave New World
http://www.interversity.org/lists/arn-l/archives/
sep2002_date/msg00447.html>
Timeline for ERIC Reauthorization
for other Web Information see Interest in ERIC page
http://www.lib.msu.edu/corby/education/eric/timel
MidTESOL posted a memorandum of concern this Spring:
SOCIO-POLITICAL
CONCERNS/PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS
http://www.midtesol.org/spc-page/20030429Eric.htm>
The plan for the “New ERIC”
makes the following changes:
* Closes all 16 ERIC Clearinghouses
* Eliminates personalized reference
and referral services
* Terminates AskERIC and clearinghouse
question-answering services
* Ends all networking and outreach! activities,
including ERIC-sponsored
Listservs
* Shuts down Clearinghouse Web
sites currently visited by 22.5 million
unique visitors a year
* Eliminates ERIC Digests, books,
and other synthesis publications
* Reduces coverage of the journal literature from 1100
journals to an estimated 400
* Restricts consumer access to information, limiting
ERIC database coverage to “approved lists” of
journals and document contributors
This message also has some information and
links pertinent to this developing situation.
A Large Chunk of ERIC’s Funding May Disappear
http://www.freelists.org/archives/
nethappenings/04-2003/msg00119.html>
Make a Shorter Link
http://makeashorterlink.com/?H3C012195>
The ERIC information sources
and tools have been a growing source of
learning materials and research
resources since 1966 for teachers and
students alike. The loss of these
resources and free access to the ERIC
database would be a crucial loss
to the field of education as well as to
other fields that have important
resources in the database, such as
communications, media, and
recreation, making the impact of any loss of
ERIC resources far greater than
just in the field of education.
David Dillard
jwne at astro temple edu
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NetGold/
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ringleaders/davidd.htm
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