The following has been brought to my attention by some administrators in
the North Georgia area.  I believe that if you are going to be affected by
this and you are not aware of this already, you need to respond before May
9th.  For those of us in education and especially those in the process of
research and publication, ERIC  is of vital importance.  I presume this is
another "Budget" item for someone, somewhere!

FACT  SHEET



ACTION ALERT:  ERIC Clearinghouses on the Chopping Block!



The U.S.  Department of Education has issued a draft Statement of  Work

(SOW) for a NEW  ERIC system. Unless the draft SOW is modified, all 16
Clearinghouses and their  services (including AskERIC, Digests, and  other

publications)  will be eliminated. The public has an opportunity to comment
on these proposed  changes until May 9,  2003.



The Good News.  It's not all bad news. A number of improvements long
advocated by the ERIC  Clearinghouses have been incorporated into the draft
ERIC Statement of Work.  These include: 1. More rigorous selection criteria
for materials added to the  database. 2. Greater speed in building the
database.

3. Centralized  processing of materials for the database.

4. Better  content coding (XML) for searching.

5. Free  full-text copies of many materials.

6. Better metataggingof content for easier  searching.



The Bad News.  Unfortunately, however, many of the proposed changes
eliminate or damage  services essential to educators and the general
public. The draft SOW:

1. Eliminates  all 16 ERIC Clearinghouses. The closing of the
Clearinghouses will eliminate the  long-lasting partnerships that ERIC has
developed with rich discourse  communities of researchers, practitioners,
and parents. Under the proposed new  Statement of Work, ERIC becomes an
impersonal, automated database.

2. Eliminates  personalized services. Many ERIC customers need direct
contact with content  specialists who can help them obtain information or
clarification before  searching the database. Others lack ready access to a
computer or the skills  required to navigate the database. But the draft
SOW eliminates these  personalized services: a. AskERICand other
Clearinghouse information services-these services respond to nearly 100,000
questions each year. b. Digests, books, and other publications.

c.  Clearinghouse Web sites.

d. Networking  and outreach activities.

e.  ERIC-sponsored Listservs.

f. Referral  services.

3. Reduces  coverage of journal literature. The interdisciplinary nature of
the ERIC  database would suffer because the number of journals likely to be
covered would  be reduced from approximately 1,100 journals to fewer than
400.

4. Eliminates  the ERIC synthesis function. ERIC Digests and major
publications provide  information in a format and language that makes this
information more accessible  to parents and teachers, for whom highly
technical or scholarly writing is not  always appropriate.

5. Restricts  consumer access to information. The draft SOW specifies the
development of  "approved lists" of journals and document contributors.
This strategy increases  the possibility that bias can be introduced into
database selection procedures.  The draft SOW also calls for limiting
database inclusion to only those items  "directly related" to education.
Education priorities change. If ERIC focuses  its collection effort
narrowly, or only on certain priorities, it may miss  documents and journal
articles that provide a balanced view of current issues or  a longitudinal
view of education trends. Research on information dissemination  supports
the current practice of reflecting a broad range of practices and views  in
the database. The ERIC database is essentially an archive or library that
serves best by including contributions on a wide variety of topics and
points of  view. 6. Limits customer access to Web-based services and
information. ERIC  Clearinghouse-sponsored Web sites are heavily used.
Collectively, these Web  sites received 688 million Web accesses and more
than 22.5 million unique  visitors in 2002. Clearinghouse Web statistics
suggest that ERIC users come to  the Clearinghouse Web sites for many
purposes other than searching the ERIC  database. For example, in 2002,
ERIC Digests were accessed more than 3.6 million  times on Clearinghouse
Web sites. Customers also use other full-text materials  on these Web
sites-FAQs, conference calendars, links,  financial and scholarship
information, and directories.









Dr. Luann L.  Purcell

Executive  Director,

Council of  Administrators of Special Education

1005 State  University Drive

Fort  Valley,  GA31030

V.  478.825.7667

F.  478.825.7811

www.casecec.org


Mike McIntyre, Ed.S
College of Education and Applied Professional Studies
Teacher Preparation Academy
Department 4154
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga, TN 37403