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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=nclrc@gwu.edu href="mailto:nclrc@gwu.edu">nclrc</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=2011@hermes.gwu.edu
href="mailto:2011@hermes.gwu.edu">2011@hermes.gwu.edu</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, May 07, 2003 5:28 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Proposed Changes in the Education Resources Information
Center (ERIC)</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<CENTER><B>IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATORS FROM THE
NATIONAL CAPITAL LANGUAGE RESOURCE CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C.</B></CENTER>
<P><B><I>The National Capital Language Resource Center is funded by the U.S.
Department of Education under Title VI of the Higher Education Act. We aim to
bring information to as many foreign language educators as possible. This
announcement is for informational purposes only. The NCLRC holds no position on
this issue.</I></B>
<CENTER>
<P><B>Proposed Changes in the Education Resources Information Center
(ERIC)</B></CENTER>
<P><B>About the ERIC Database</B> <BR>This online database and network
established in 1966 is comprised of more than one million bibliographic records,
each of which contains an abstract of a journal article or non-journal document
(e.g., technical reports or conference papers), along with index information. It
is the largest entity of its kind in the world. Sixteen content-based
clearinghouses provide for collection, selection, indexing, and abstracting of
journal articles and non-journal documents. Their primary mission is to provide
solid, reliable, and timely information on education issues for teachers,
administrators, parents, students, researchers, state and federal government
agencies, as well as the general public. Much of this information is available
free of charge and posted on the clearinghouses' Web sites. <BR> <BR>Each
clearinghouse focuses on a specific topic such as Languages and Linguistics,
Assessment and Evaluation, Teaching and Teacher Education, Information and
Technology, Educational Management, Disabilities and Gifted Education, amongst
many others. The clearinghouses also have coordinators who answer questions from
the public. (You can access the free ERIC bibliographic database through
<A href="http://www.eric.ed.gov">http://www.eric.ed.gov</A>)
<P><B>The Debate over ERIC</B> <BR>The U.S. Department of Education has
announced plans to administratively change the Education Resources Information
Center. Emphasis in the draft statement of work is on the fact that the
procedures that ERIC uses need to be made more efficient. It proposes to reduce
the 16 content-based clearinghouses to one entity which will be administered
primarily through electronic means. Furthermore, it proposes to limit the kind
of information included in the database to evidence-based material.
<P>A number of educators and researchers feel that ERIC already provides its
public with a comprehensive, easy-to-use, searchable, online bibliographic and
full-text database. The staff in the clearinghouses provide the public with
personalized attention that would not be possible with a purely electronic
database. There is concern that the emphasis on speed, efficiency, and cost
effectiveness will compromise the content and accessibility of the world’s
largest and most frequently used education database.
<P><B>To read the Draft Statement of Work issued by the Department of Education,
</B>visit: <B> </B> <A
href="http://www.eps.gov/spg/ED/OCFO/CPO/Reference%2DNumber%2DERIC2003/Attachments.html">http://www.eps.gov/spg/ED/OCFO/CPO/Reference%2DNumber%2DERIC2003/Attachments.html</A>
<P><B>To read critiques of the Draft Statement, </B>visit:
www.languagepolicy.org
<P><B>THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IS INVITING COMMENTS UNTIL 4:00PM EST FRIDAY,
MAY 9TH , 2003.</B> <BR> </P></BODY></HTML>