Reviews: Do You Know ERIC?

Karen DeBord

Do you know ERIC? You have heard of ERIC perhaps, but did you know that this is a resource you can use when designing programs, answering questions, and locating research about topics related to education and learning? The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is a national information system designed to provide users with ready access to an extensive body of education-related literature. Established in 1966, ERIC is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), and is administered by the National Library of Education.

A pocket guide to ERIC and its many, many resources is located at http://www.accesseric.org/resources/resources.html.

There are 30 clearinghouses focusing on such topics as adult and vocational education, child care, educational technology, rural education, urban education, and teacher education. A listing of all the clearinghouses is located at http://www.accesseric.org/sites/barak.html.

ERIC Clearinghouses collect, abstract, and index educational materials for the ERIC database. There are staff who respond to requests for information in their subject specific areas and produce special publications on current research, programs, and practices. Many of their documents are translated into various languages and are suitable for parents, such as three new digests translated into Korean under these titles:

  • “Another look at what young children should be learning,” by Lillian G. Katz
  • “Helping Middle School Students make the transition into high school,” by Nancy B. Mizelle
  • “How parents can help their children,” by Judy S. Freedman.

These are located at http://ericeece.org/pubs/digests/korean.html

There are more than 20 titles related to educational topics in Spanish with titles such as

ERIC also cooperates with Cultural and Linguistic Services providing resources on working with young children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Their Web site is located at http://clas.uiuc.edu. All the ERIC digests are listed by title on their Web site: http://ericeece.org/pubs/digests/bytitle.html.

One section called ASKERIC (http://ericeece.org/askeric.html) is a question-answering service. Questions are responded to by one or more ERIC Clearinghouses that deal with the topic of the question. Responses generally include: (1) the complete text of a relevant article or ERIC Digest; (2) a pointer to Internet resources on the topic of the question; (3) a short list of other organizations or information providers that can be contacted for information; and (4) a short bibliography of citations from the ERIC database.

The home page for ERIC is http://ericeece.org/abteric.html, and the Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Education is http://ericeece.org/.

Check it out, bookmark it, and get to know ERIC as a valuable resource!

Author

Karen DeBord, Ph.D., CFLE. Associate Professor, State Extension Specialist for Child Development and Parenting Education, NC State University, Raleigh, North Carolina.

The opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of FFCI‘s Editorial Board, North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, or North Carolina State University.

 

 

Cite this article:

DeBord, Karen. 2001. Reviews: Do you know ERIC? The Forum for Family and Consumer Issues 6(3).

 

 

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