Major overhaul of ERIC proposed
5/20/03 -- The U.S. Education Department is proposing a major overhaul of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) system.
The plan calls for the elimination, through consolidation, of all 16 ERIC clearinghouses, which collect research findings on teaching and learning and many of the services they provide, including personalized help for users, the ERIC Digests, and subject-specific Web sites.
The plan also would make ERIC more selective about the types of material it collects.
In a May 9 letter to Education Secretary Rod Paige, NSBA Executive Director Anne L. Bryant urged the Education Department to maintain the AskEric feature, which provides personalized responses to questions.
According to Bryant, AskEric is an invaluable service for school board members and others, particularly when online searches or other self-guided research has failed.
NSBA also urges the secretary to retain the ERIC Digests and other resources that synthesize and summarize research, accept nominations from the public for the ERIC steering committee, and ensure that content experts be included in public forums on ERIC.
Bryant, however, notes that many of the proposed changes to ERIC will benefit users, such as updated coding procedures, links to commercial sources, continuous improvement of the system through usage analysis, and free access to the full text of journal articles.
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| Reproduced with permission from the May 20, 2003, issue of School Board News. Copyright © 2003, National School Boards Association. Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect positions of NSBA. This article may be printed out and photocopied for individual or educational use, provided this copyright notice appears on each copy. This article may not be otherwise transmitted or reproduced in print or electronic form without the consent of the Publisher. For more information, call (703) 838-6789. |