Open AccessQuality of Researchers' Searches of the ERIC Database
Author(s) -
Scott Hertzberg,
Lawrence M. Rudner
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
education policy analysis archives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.727
H-Index - 46
ISSN - 1068-2341
DOI - 10.14507/epaa.v7n25.1999
Subject(s) - intermediary , quality (philosophy) , resource (disambiguation) , database , center (category theory) , world wide web , computer science , information center , educational resources , library science , psychology , business , educational research , mathematics education , marketing , pedagogy , computer network , philosophy , chemistry , epistemology , crystallography
During the last ten years, end-users of electronic databases have become progressively less dependent on librarians and other intermediaries. This is certainly the case with the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) Database, a resource once accessed by passing a paper query form to a librarian and now increasingly searched directly by end-users. This article empirically examines the search strategies currently being used by researchers and other groups. College professors and educational researchers appear to be doing a better job searching the database than other ERIC patrons. However, the study suggests that most end-users should be using much better search strategies.