SU’s ERIC/IT becomes the first in the nation to launch a Full-Text database

SU’s ERIC/IT becomes the first in the nation to launch a Full-Text databaseSeptember 22, 2001Judy Holmesjlholmes@syr.edu

The ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology (ERIC/IT) has launched the first Full-Text database in the national ERIC system. Users can now search ERIC/IT (www.ericit.org) for more than 1,000 of the latest research reports, conference papers, opinion papers, selected articles and other documents in the fields of library science and educational technology, and, with a simple click of the mouse, download the complete document into their computers.

“This is a service our users have waited a long time for,” says R. David Lankes, director of the Information Institute of Syracuse, which houses ERIC/IT. “Users now have immediate access to complete documents, 24-hours a day, seven days a week. This level of accessibility to the full texts of documents on the ERIC/IT system was not previously available.”

Hosted by the School of Information Studies, ERIC/IT is one of 16 clearinghouses in the national ERIC system (www.eric.ed.gov), which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and is designed to provide access via the Internet to an extensive body of education-related literature. Each of the 16 clearinghouses focuses on a different subject area within the education field.

The national ERIC database contains citations and abstracts for more than 1 million journal articles, research reports, curriculum and teaching guides, conference papers and books. Users can obtain copies of the complete documents through various online document reproductive services or through libraries and bookstores. The national ERIC database collects its resources from the 16 clearinghouses, including ERIC/IT.

The new Full-Text database is one of two databases that are available on the ERIC/IT Web site as a special service for users. The other is the In Process Abstracts database, which contains all of the resources that ERIC/IT sends to Washington, D.C. for inclusion in the national database, but which have not yet been processed by the national ERIC offices. The ERIC/IT Web site also has a link to the national ERIC database.

All of the resources processed by ERIC/IT, and which are archived either in the national database or in the ERIC/IT databases, are professionally reviewed by subject specialists in the School of Information Studies and the School of Education or by ERIC/IT staff members.

Joan Kad, ERIC/IT database coordinator, says authors have had an overwhelmingly positive response to the new Full-Text database, which was designed by Wen-Yuan Hsiao, a doctoral student in the School of Information Studies. The Full-Text database is updated and maintained by ERIC/IT staff members Lisa Pawlewicz ’95 and Monica Todeschini.

“We receive material from people all over the world,” Kad says. “The authors of the materials have been extremely generous about sending us the full texts. It offers them an opportunity to archive their materials while retaining the copyrights. By giving the materials to us, they are sharing it with the world.”

ERIC/IT, which is affiliated with both the School of Information Studies and School of Education, was established at the University 25 years ago and is one of the longest-running, continually funded programs on campus.