- E Subscribe Service Gives Full-Text ERIC Documents
- One of the most useful and popular research tools available to
education majors and faculty members is the ERIC Database. A joint
product of the Educational Resources Information Center and the
U.S. Department of Education, ERIC first became available in 1966
as a print index in two separate sections: the CIJE (Current Index
to Journals in Education) and the RIE (Resources in Education).
They were later combined to provide electronic indexing to journals
and documents via CD-ROM and eventually Internet technology, with
citations now numbering over one million. The Weinberg Library provided
access to the ERIC database both in house and from remote locations
through three different services: Silver Platter
ERIC, OCLC’s
First Search ERIC and the free service from Syracuse University
called ASK ERIC. All three databases allowed the user to search
by keyword, author, or more sophisticated advanced searching techniques,
such as target audience or type of research report. Approximately
one half of all citations in the database are journal articles,
found in the print, bound, microfilm or electronic formats. The
remaining citations refer the user to a variety of published reports,
master’s theses, teaching guides, issue papers, and test and
evaluation instruments. These items are called ERIC Documents and
had previously only been accessible in full text by physically coming
to a library to use the microfiche documents that corresponded to
the ED numbers found at the top of each citation. Once the user
located the fiche, he or she could read and print any or all of
the pages of the documents, which could sometimes exceed 200 pages.
Now, through a new service called E Subscribe, patrons can access the full–text of the ERIC Documents via the Internet. You may conduct your search in ASK ERIC or ERIC through First Search to obtain citations on your topic. But instead of having to copy d own the ED number and proceed to the microfiche collection, you simply hit the “Obtain Document” link following the abstract. This will automatically bring the Acrobat interface for reading the document onto your screen. Follow the directions to “Open” and you will then be able to view the full-text of the document Use menu options on top of your screen to print or download the text. You may even choose to print only the current page or range of pages if you prefer. Since some of the files are quite lengthy, print page ranges to insure your printer won’t “overflow.”
In addition to linking to the documents through yours searches in ASK ERIC and First Search ERIC, you can also go directly to the E Subscribe link on the grid of Electronic Indexes, located on the Library’s Homepage. An Express Search allows you to key in the ED number and retrieve the document immediately. You may also conduct a full search and retrieve a template and limiters, similar to advanced searching in First Search.
As with the other databases and full text services on our electronic grid menu, you may also search E Subscribe from off campus by selecting the “Remote User” option in the last column of the grid. - One word of caution when attempting to print your document: send
you print job to a printer with adequate memory. Due to the large
number of words in many of the documents, you may experience an
overflow problem with an older printer.
Please feel free to call the Reference Desk at x4000 for a demonstration of ESubscribe or if you have any question s regarding the service. -
Betsey Moylan