Searching ERIC Some quick tips for effectively searching ERIC for educational research. Laura A. Ewald Assistant Librarian in Public Services Ruby E. Dare Library Greenville College January 2010

Why ERIC???  ERIC (The Educational Resource and Information Center) provides unlimited access to more than 1.3 million records of journal articles and other education-related materials, with hundreds of new records added multiple times per week.  In addition to the journal literature, ERIC indexes education-related materials from a variety of sources, including scholarly organizations, professional associations, research centers, policy organizations, university presses, the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies, and state and local agencies. Individual contributors submit conference papers, research papers, dissertations, and theses.  While ERIC is no longer run by the Federal Government, the database is still housed at the Department of Education at ERIC Tips

Keys to Using ERIC Use the Advanced Search option. Look for limiters, esp… –Journal Articles (EJ) vs. Documents (EJ) –Date –Publication Type The EBSCO version is recommended as having the most search and full text options, so as long as you are enrolled at Greenville College, you should use it! ERIC Tips

From the GC Library Web Page Select the “Find Articles” link. ERIC Tips

The Find Articles Page Select EBSCO Databases ERIC Tips

 The Library’s online resources are proprietary, subscription services and require an authorized ID to login.  As a GC student, your access login is your 14-digit GC student ID number (24511XXXXXXXXX). Logging in to GC Databases ERIC Tips

The EBSCO Page Select ERIC ERIC Tips

The EBSCOhost interface (your BEST choice!) Add as many search lines as needed. Select “Journal Articles” in both. Use this option to select education levels. Tip: Holding the CTRL key down allows you to select multiple levels. Set year range. ERIC Tips Use “ “ to search on phrases.

Full text in EBSCO databases Full text available in this database Check availability in other databases, GC Catalog or order via ILL ERIC Tips

Inter Library Loan There are 2 ways to order materials via InterLibrary Loan Click the “Check for more full text options” link within any database record to check for other full text options and access the ILL form the record directly from any database to ERIC Tips

Check for full-text options & access the G.C. ILL form. record to ILL Options in EBSCOHost But first! ERIC Tips

Clicking on the takes you to one of these two screens. Article available in another GC database. Article must be requested via InterLibrary Loan. ERIC Tips

Document Delivery Service Fill in these five lines and click “Send Request” to complete your request. ERIC Tips

Getting InterLibrary Loan articles (ILL) on time “Needed by” dates.... All ILL requests are processed ASAP. PLAN AHEAD --- two-week’s notice.*** *** IMPORTANT!! Some articles come within hours of our ordering them, and some take weeks. We can’t know ahead of time how quick the turnaround will be, but we will try to get them to you as quickly as possible. ERIC Tips

If it is available in Full Text, Print it out! If it is not available in Full Text, click the link to Check for other full text options. If it is not available in Full Text anywhere, use the online ILL form or the item record to the LIBILL account Include your name & status in the subject line or text of your message Write down or print out relevant citation information for your own records (author, title, date, periodical title, pages, and database or index used). When you find something... ERIC Tips

Checklist for searching ERIC:  For best results, use the EBSCO version;  For the best scholarly resources, search on Journal Articles not Documents;  Limit your Publication Type to “Journals Articles,” too.  Save a search line by selecting your “Educational Level.” Use the CTRL key to select multiple levels such as both “Primary Education” and “Elementary Education.”  Limit by date using a year range. ERIC Tips

us at: or If you have any questions... For assistance logging in to a database, call ERIC Tips