Part 2 of the ERIC tutorial covers:
running time: approx. 5 minutes
Please complete Part 1 of the ERIC tutorial first!
Section 1, Understanding ERIC Documents:
Besides journal articles, ERIC covers a wide variety of other materials, collectively called "ERIC Documents." Authors submit these materials to ERIC so that other educators can benefit from them.
In Part 1, we looked at Peer-Reviewed Journals, but ERIC documents are usually found under the other tabs on the results screen. Let's take a look at one category, papers from professional conferences. (The tab is labeled "Conferences.")
As with journal articles, click on the title to find out more. Of course, the Abstract will tell us more about the paper....And the Notes tell us which conference the paper came from. This Note says "Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association" and gives the date. Let's go back to our results list...
Many ERIC documents are available online. These will have a "Full Text" link. The full text is a PDF copy of the original paper, which can be printed or saved. (It will open in a separate window.)
But not all ERIC documents are available online...This example does not have a "Full Text" link. Let's look at this one by clicking on the title. In the field labeled "Availability," notice that this document says, "Produced in Microfiche." Before 2003, many ERIC documents were distributed to libraries as microfiche copies. Pfau Library has a complete set of ERIC microfiche. The microfiche documents are filed in order by their 6-digit "E D" number. (Find it in the field labeled "Accession Number.") You can find them in the Microforms Room on the library 1st Floor. The ERIC Microfiche cabinets start immediately to the left of the doorway.
Let's look at some other types of ERIC documents... We'll use the "More..." tab on the ERIC results screen. Here we see more categories. Let's try the tab labeled "Reports." The first result on the list doesn't offer a link to the full text, so let's see if it's available on microfiche. (Click on title to view more information.)
Bad news! Under "Availabilty," it says "Indexed Only," meaning that ERIC has no full text for it. This item is actually a book, as shown by the presence of its ISBN number and Publisher information. It also says "Publication Type: 010 Books." (We could use the "Search for Full Text" button, then check the Library Catalog, to find out if the library owns a copy.)
Section 2, Working with Descriptors:
Descriptors are standardized terms ERIC uses to describe various topics. Once
you know a Descriptor for your topic, using it can help improve your search.
Every ERIC item has Descriptors, also known as Subject Headings, attached to it. (View them by clicking any title from your results.) Each descriptor if preceded by a check box. If you see some Descriptors that interest you, just mark them in order to run a new search. Our example displays the descriptors "Writing Instruction" and "Revision (Written Composition)," among others. I'll mark these two boxes. We'll combine these two Descriptors using AND to narrow our search. (The option "Use AND to narrow" is automatically selected.) Just click the "Go" button to run this new search. Now we have a new set of results to look through.
What if you aren't sure what descriptors might apply to your topic? In that case, use the ERIC Thesaurus.
To find it, choose the "Search Tools" tab, then choose the choose the "Thesaurus" tab. To look for Descriptors, type a keyword in the box. I'll try this example: writing.
The list displays possible matches. A plus sign next to a result means there is more information to view. I'll click on "Writing (Composition)." This page has a definition of this descriptor, near the top of the page. Below, the thesaurus suggests Broader (less specific) Terms, and Narrower (more specific) Terms. Further down, the thesaurus also suggests Related Terms, with their definitions. Narrower and Related Terms can be helpful if you're having trouble thinking of the right word for your search!
Section 3, Search History
Gotten lost on your search path? Can't remember what searches you've tried? Just use the search history.
From inside the Search Tools tab, click on the History tab. The ERIC searches you have run so far will be listed in order, most recent first. To display any previous set of results, just use its "Return to Search" link.
For any online researcher, we recommend these additional tutorials:
Advanced Online Searching
Choosing Keywords
Choosing a Topic
You've reached the end of this tutorial lesson.