Posted June 2, 2003.

Educators Wary of ERIC Overhaul

A proposal by the U.S. Department of Education to consolidate its Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), a large database of articles, reports, and teaching guides, has drawn criticism from researchers who fear it may lose some of its usefulness. Prompted by the expiration of the system’s contract at the end of 2003, the DOE issued a draft statement April 10 that recommends consolidating ERIC from 16 subject-specific clearinghouses to one automated center, with no on-site content experts to answer questions or perform searches. The proposal also eliminates ERIC digests, bibliographies, and subject-specific websites.

“Teachers often e-mail the ERIC system hoping to find something, or asking for good websites or the best articles,” said Lawrence Rudner, director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation at the University of Maryland’s College of Library and Information Services at College Park. “They are wiping that structure out. . . . We should be making the system stronger, not weaker.”

But Education Department officials insist the database is outdated and inefficient and they are merely attempting to streamline it. “It’s a system that is duplicative and slow,” Assistant Secretary of Education Grover J. Whitehurst said in a May 28 Associated Press report. “And we’re simply trying to provide better service.”

Educators and researchers have set up a Save ERIC website that offers an alternative proposal.

Posted June 2, 2003.