[original posting followed by responses.]
From: "Winward, Kyle D" <kdw212f_at_smsu.edu>
I have been trying to gather some information on the New ERIC and the
best information that I have found so far is the update at
http://www.eric.ed.gov . This mentions that Computer Sciences
Corporation (CSC), along with its subcontractors, have been chosen to
develop and operate the new database and that the service is scheduled
to be available September 1, 2004. I have contacted the Department of
Education for more information and am seeking to gather contact
information for CSC. Do any of you have any additional information on
the New ERIC and/or CSC? I am especially interested in what type of
subscriptions will be available.
==1==
From:
Cheryl Grossman <grossman.4_at_osu.edu>
Hello Kyle,
CSC is the company that currently runs the ERIC Facility and EDRS.
The Statement of Work (SOW) proposed by ED made some changes that will
affect subscriptions. 1) ERIC microfiche will no longer be published
or made available (so no subscription there after July 30, 2004); 2)
the materials currently on E*Subscribe are supposed to be made
available freely through the database (so no subscription there
either); and 3) The ERIC database has long been available on the web
and will continue to have a web presence, but you may still want to
maintain a subscription through your current vendor (look at the
search engine on the http://www.eric.ed.gov site to see the probable
future of ERIC searching on the web - IMHO Ugh!).
Caveat: The above information is based on the Statement of Work, ED
and CSC may have made adjustments to the SOW in the final contract.
If so, some or all of the above may be just plain wrong. To find out
more about the 'new' ERIC, you might want to visit ERIC
Reauthorization News (http://www.lib.msu.edu/corby/education/doe.htm)
which is maintained by Kate Corby at Michigan State U. and members of
the Education and Behavioral Sciences Section (EBSS) of ACRL.
Cheryl Grossman
(formerly on staff at the ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career and
Vocational Education)
==2==
From:
Scott Walter <swalter_at_wsu.edu>
Kyle - the most extensive review of information related to the ERIC
situation can be found on the site maintained by Kate Corby for the
ACRL-EBSS Ad Hoc Committee on Access to Government Information
(founded a little over a year ago to address issues raised over the
past 2 years regarding the information policies of the U.S. Department
of Education). You can find the site at
<http://www.lib.msu.edu/corby/ebss/accesseric.htm>.
EBSS also sponsored a lively discussion of the future of ERIC
resources and services at Midwinter 2004, and you can find a
description of that program in the new issue of the EBSS Newsletter,
available at
<http://www.lib.msu.edu/corby/ebss/newsletter/spring2004.pdf>.
I'm not sure what you mean by "subscriptions," though. Part of the
"new ERIC" is that the scope of the material collected for inclusion
in the database may be changed, but all materials will be freely
available. So, there will no longer a subscription through EDRS for
the electronic documents currently made available through E*Subscribe.
All those files will be freely available (when is still up in the
air). Basic access to the ERIC database has been freely available for
years through government-sponsored access points, and will continue to
be so (although you will obviously continue to pay for access to the
proprietary versions of the ERIC database made available through
vendors such as FirstSearch, Ovid, etc.). Are you thinking of
something other than the electronic documents or the ERIC database?
best,
scott
**************************************************
Scott Walter
Interim Assistant Director for Public Services and Outreach, and
Subject Specialist for Higher Education
1C Holland/New Library
Washington State University
P.O. Box 645610
Pullman, WA 99164-5610
Received on Mon Apr 19 2004 - 10:41:34 EDT