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ERIC indexes education
journals and documents. Coverage includes journal articles (EJ numbered
items) and documents (ED numbered items) dated 1966 to present. The APSU
Library does not have all journal articles (EJ numbered) found on ERIC.
Journals that the APSU library do own will be denoted with a red mark  on
the first line of the citation. You can then go down toward the bottom
of the citation and click the "Links to Library Holdings" to verify the
volume and issue you need is part of the Library's collection. The
Library has over 90% of the ERIC documents (ED numbered) on microfiche
in red file cabinets on Level 2. Additionally, about 90% of the
microfiche documents from 1993 to present are also available online.
ERIC's functionalities are
denoted with tabs. The default screen is tabbed "Search"
1. TO SEARCH
In the input box, type a
word or phrase describing your topic. Click the yellow [Search] button
or just press <Enter> on keyboard.
ERIC uses a controlled
vocabulary of subject headings. To identify precise search terms, go to
the tab marked "Thesaurus." Type a term then click [Go To Terms] to see
equivalent terms.
Results of searches are
displayed at bottom of screen below yellow dividing area.
2. TO DISPLAY AND MARK
YOUR RESULTS
To DISPLAY your search
results, select from the "Show" drop-down menu the option of "All
Results". You can also limit your results to display only items from the
library's JOURNAL holdings (1st floor) by selecting "Available from
Library" option.
To MARK a record for
printing, save to diskette or email, click the box next to the first
line of the displayed record to place a checkmark in box.
3. TO PRINT, SAVE, OR
E-MAIL YOUR SEARCH RESULTS
You can process your
information for output in many different ways. You can output a range of
records, you can output only marked records, you can even output all
records (WE STRONGLY ADVISE AGAINST THIS). You can customize what fields
will be output (displayed fields or user selected fields). You can even
have your search history output with your results.
To print: Click the
print icon . After configuring output options (see above), Click [Print]
and when the printer list comes up, take the default and click [Print].
To save to diskette:
Place a formatted disk in disk drive. Click the diskette icon . After
configuring output options (see above), click [Save] and when new window
opens up, select "Save this file to disk" . Be sure you select A: drive.
The saved file can then be viewed using Notepad, Wordpad, or
Microsoft Word.
To e-mail: Click the
email icon . After configuring output options (see above), enter an
email address in the "From" field and an email address in the "Send
records to:" field. When ready, click [Send Mail].
4. TO CUSTOMIZE/ADVANCE
SEARCH
ERIC has functionality to
set "Search Limits." In the drop-down box labeled "Find Terms", one can
search "Anywhere" (default), "in Subject", "in Title" or "in Author".
One very useful limitation
is "Source File". By selecting ED, your results will be limited just to
documents. By selecting EJ, your results will be limited to just journal
articles. The default is "Any" which will give you both ED's and EJ's.
Results can also be limited
to "Publication year greater then 1997", and "Records with EDRS document
link" (full-text documents available online).
By clicking [Change] at
top of search screen, one can configure other types of limitations.
Simply select desired limitation from the left hand column. Common ones
are "Document Type" (Dissertations, Guides, Proceedings, etc);
"Publication Year", and "Target Audience" (Administrators, Researcher,
Students, etc). By selecting the "Advanced" tab, one can also
search for terms in various subfields of a record. Simply type your
term/s and select from a drop down menu to search "in" certain fields
such as "Accession Number (AN)" or "Descriptors (DE)" or "Journal Name (JN)".
If one has multiple words
or phrases to search you can use "AND" to narrow search results and "OR"
to broaden search results.
Example: affirmative-action
AND women : both terms must appear in each record
Example: women OR females :
either term (or both) must appear in each record
Use truncation symbol " * "
to retrieve all forms of a root word.
Example: searching
handicap* will find handicap, handicapped, handicapping
5. To View ERIC Documents
Online
Many ERIC documents from
1993 to the present are available online in PDF format. To view or print
the documents, Adobe Acrobat reader must be installed on your computer.
The reader is available free from
http://www.adobe.com/.
If a document is available
online, the record will include an "EDRS Document Link" field containing
an URL (internet address). To access the document from an on-campus
computer, simply click the URL. For access from an off-campus computer,
please see Remote
Access to ERIC Documents. Please note that it is not
necessary for Austin Peay students, faculty or staff to pay for ERIC
documents available online.
When the URL in the "EDRS
Document Link" field is clicked, a separate browser window will open
containing the document details. Large documents may take several
minutes to download. To print, click the Acrobat reader's print icon. If
the document is large, it may be necessary to print the document in
sections (pages 1-15, then 16-30, etc) depending upon the memory of the
computer and/or the printer.
To return to the ERIC
database, close the document window. Or, use the buttons on the windows
task bar at the bottom of the screen to switch between the two windows.
6. TO LOGOUT
Click [Logout] at the top
right of the ERIC window. |
