Director's
Forum:
ERIC Clearinghouses to Close
by
Susan Imel
Because of changes being made in the ERIC system at the federal
level, all ERIC Clearinghouses will cease operation after December
31, 2003. In the future, the federal resources for supporting
ERIC will be focused on the development of the database. A request
for proposals to operate the ERIC database was issued in June
and proposals were submitted in mid-August. At this time, however,
no announcement has been made about what group has been selected
to operate the contract.
Regardless
of who is selected, however, the ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult,
Career, and Vocational Education (ERIC/ACVE) will not be in operation
after the end of the year. The closing of the Clearinghouse brings
to a close a long history of providing ERIC information services
to the field of adult, career, and career and technical education
by the Center on Education and Training for Employment at The
Ohio State University (OSU). The Center has operated an ERIC Clearinghouse
for 34 of the 37 years that ERIC has been in existence.
ERIC/ACVE
actually represents a merger of two of the early ERIC Clearinghouses.
In 1966, the very first of the original ERIC Clearinghouse contracts
was negotiated with OSU to create the ERIC Clearinghouse on Vocational
and Technical Education. In 1967, the ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult
Education was organized at Syracuse University (SU). OSU and SU
operated their respective ERIC Clearinghouses until 1973, when
the two were merged to form the ERIC Clearinghouse on Career Education
(ERIC/CE). ERIC/CE was located at Northern Illinois University
from 1973-1976, at which time it returned to OSU. In September
1978, at the urging of the Clearinghouse Advisory Committee, the
name of the Clearinghouse was changed to the ERIC Clearinghouse
on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education.
The
closing of ERIC/ACVE means that we will be shutting down our very
popular website. We are making arrangements, however, for many
of the contents to be transferred to other locations (see related
article below). The new contractor for ERIC will be developing
a website that will allow users to search the database and retrieve
materials in full text.
The
Clearinghouse staff and I appreciate the many ways you have shown
support for our work over the years. Our website now regularly
receives over 30,000 unique visitors each month. We have loved
the messages praising our products or responses to questions and
inquiries but also valued—and tried to learn from—the
feedback we got when we somehow “missed the mark.” In
short, we have tried to be good stewards of your federal tax dollars.
It has been a privilege to direct ERIC/ACVE for the past 16 years
and to serve as the adult education specialist for nearly 23 years.
Many of you have become important professional colleagues. As
always, I welcome questions or comments. I can be reached via
e-mail (imel.1@osu.edu), by telephone (800/848-4815, ext. 2-8606),
or by regular mail sent to Susan Imel, ERIC/ACVE, 1900 Kenny Road,
Columbus, OH 43210-1090.
Spotlight
on the
ERIC/ACVE Website
Many
of the services (publications, links, question answering, information
about the ERIC system and links to the ERIC database) of the ERIC
Clearinghouse on Adult, Career and Vocational Education (ERIC
ACVE) have been provided through our website. When the Clearinghouse
ceases to exist on January 1, 2004, what will happen to these
services?
Fortunately
our host organization, the Center for Education and Training for
Employment at the Ohio State University, will archive much of
the information through their website (http://www.cete.org).
Additionally, the Texas Center for Adult Literacy and Learning
directed by Ralf St.Clair at Texas A&M University has also
offered to archive our site (http://www-tcall.tamu.edu).
You
will be able to find the following at these sites after 2003.
Keep in mind that links to other sites may not be maintained.
All
of the publications currently available on the ERIC/ACVE website:
•
ERIC Digests
• Myths and Realities
• Practice Application Briefs
• Practitioner Files (P-Files)
• Trends and Issues Alerts
• Major Publications
All
of our current links to related sites and full-text sites
Journals
on the web (covering journals indexed in the ERIC database through
2003)
What
you will not find:
•
Question and answer form
• Information about ERIC or how to become an ERIC author
• Link to the ERIC database
• In-Process abstracts search
• Links to other ERIC Clearinghouses
• ERIC ACVE staff
We
are planning to change the home page of our current site to direct
users to the two archive sites at the end of the year and encourage
you to update your links and bookmarks.
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Fall
2003 