Fw: Proposed Changes in the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)

[Alkistis Fleischer]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: nclrc 
To: 2011 at hermes.gwu.edu 
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 5:28 PM
Subject: Proposed Changes in the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)


IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATORS FROM THE NATIONAL CAPITAL LANGUAGE RESOURCE CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C.
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. 

Proposed Changes in the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)

About the ERIC Database 
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. 
  
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 http://www.eric.ed.gov) 

The Debate over ERIC 
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. 

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. 

To read the Draft Statement of Work issued by the Department of Education, visit:    http://www.eps.gov/spg/ED/OCFO/CPO/Reference%2DNumber%2DERIC2003/Attachments.html 

To read critiques of the Draft Statement, visit: www.languagepolicy.org 

THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IS INVITING COMMENTS UNTIL 4:00PM EST FRIDAY, MAY 9TH , 2003. 
  
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