Wednesday, October 05, 2005

ERIC Updated The new ERIC is worth another look. This update by Paula Hane in Newslink provides a quick overview of the changes. Visitors who find ERIC valuable can register for a free account to gain access to special My ERIC features. ______JH ________ The latest on ERIC. Paula J. Hane, Update on ERIC, Newslink, October 2005. Excerpt: The venerable [open-access] ERIC database has been undergoing an extensive restructuring and modernization program. The ERIC database had been compiled by 16 subject-specific clearinghouses, but the clearinghouse contracts expired in December 2003 and a complete re-engineering began. (See our NewsBreak [from April 2003].) In March 2004, the U.S. Department of Education awarded a contract for the new ERIC system to Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) of Rockville, Md. CSC launched a new database interface on Sept. 1, 2004. On Oct. 1, 2004, more than 107,000 full-text non-journal documents (issued 1993–2004), previously available through fee-based services only, were made available for free. In the future, the collection may include other electronic resources such as audio and video materials. The Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education, is responsible for the database of journal and non-journal education literature. The ERIC online system now provides the public with a centralized Web site for searching the ERIC bibliographic database of more than 1.1 million citations going back to 1966, the year ERIC began. By noemail@noemail.org (Peter Suber). [Open Access News] 5:33:49 PM    COMMENT []