Details on New ERIC Model Include Delay, Enhancements
-- Library Journal, 12/11/2003
More details have emerged about the new model for ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) services, as clearinghouses are eliminated and a new vendor prepares to take over. The ERIC site<www.eric.ed.gov> announces that, beginning in January, no new materials will be received and accepted for the database until the new model is ready later in 2004.
The new ERIC contractor, still unnamed, will communicate with publishers, education organizations, and other database contributors to add publications and materials released from January 2004 forward. In the interim, the ERIC database will continue to grow, as thousands of documents selected by the ERIC clearinghouses throughout 2003 will be added. The centralized bibliographic database of journal articles and other published and unpublished education materials will be enhanced with free full text and electronic links to commercial sources. David Lankes, director of the Information Institute of Syracuse, which operates the soon-to-be defunct ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology and the AskERIC service, released more details about the latter's successor, the Educator's Reference Desk Service, www.eduref.org. It will contain thousands of lesson plans and links to educational organizations, discussion groups, answers to 200 frequently asked questions, and briefs on hot topics.
