What was the reasoning behind the Department of Education's closing and "reengineering" of the University of Indiana's 36 year old ERIC database in December 2003? How does the new system differ from the original?
http://www.indiana.edu/~eric_rec/
http://www.eric.ed.gov/
ERIC is a federal project, which is utilized by the University of
Indiana and many other schools and libraries. "ERIC was formed in
1966 as a unit of the Education Research and Improvement Office,
within the Department of Education."--Source: History of the Department of Education
The official reasoning for the recent changes at ERIC, taken from
the official website, follows:
"ERIC's mission is to provide a comprehensive, easy-to-use,
searchable, Internet-based bibliographic and full-text database of
education research and information that also meets the requirements of the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002. A
fundamental goal for ERIC's future is to increase the availability and quality of research and information for educators, researchers, and the general public. The Institute of Education Sciences is committed to continuously improving the efficiency and utility of ERIC so that it becomes a premier Web-based library for accessing current and historical education resources. Among these resources will be the studies produced by the What Works Clearinghouse in support of the Department of Education's initiative to identify the best scientifically based evidence of "what works" in education."
Education Week (which requires a free registration) had an article when the reauthorization of ERIC was announced (April 30, 2003
"Ed. Dept. Floats Plan for Overhaul Of ERIC Clearinghouses"
By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2003/04/30/33eric.h22.html?querystring=ERIC%20Clearinghouses). This article says "According to the proposal, the changes are intended to make the system more efficient and cost-effective—as required under the 2002 law creating the agency's Institute of Education Sciences—and to speed the time it takes to archive the thousands of education studies, papers, and scholarly articles that are collected by the clearinghouses each year." The proposal itself is no longer up on the Ed Department's website, and I can't find an archived version either.
Education week has several other articles (January 14, 2004
"ERIC Clearinghouses Close; New System in Works" By Debra Viadero and May 28, 2003 "Plans to Alter ERIC Set Off Alarms" By Debra Viadero), which both cite efficiency as the main reason for the overhaul. Both articles also mention opposition to the changes.
Kate Corby, on behalf of the Education and Behavior Science Section of ACRL/ALA, maintained a web site which detailed the changes as they were happening. Lots of detailed information on the changes at ERIC, which at the
most basic level entails free public access to many ERIC Documents
in full text online, can be found at
C Reauthorization News. Her pages include practical implications of the changes as well as a list of where to find a lot of the content that was previously housed by the Clearinghouse web sites.