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MATESOL

An introduction to library research for the MATESOL program

ERIC Overview

The ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) database is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education to provide extensive access to educational-related literature. ERIC provides coverage of journal articles, conferences, meetings, government documents, theses, reports, audiovisual media, and monographs.

•"ERIC Documents" (identified by the ED prefix) are "grey literature" documents such as policy statements, reports, etc, that are not published elsewhere.

Free ERIC on the Web

Free access to ERIC is available via the US Dept. of Education

•A limited number of full text sources are available via this portal

•This version provides the most comprehensive information about ERIC and extensive Help with ERIC searching

ERIC Searching

Access ERIC via BobCat - Databases  tab

Use Advanced Search

 

•Start with a Keyword search (All fields)
•Examine the results and select relevant Subject words (Descriptors)
•Limit your search by Document Type, Education Level, Target Audience as appropriate

ERIC Thesaurus

"The Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors is a controlled vocabulary - a carefully selected list of education-related words and phrases assigned to ERIC records to organize them by subject ... Searching by Descriptors involves selecting relevant terms from this controlled vocabulary to locate information on your topic."

 

"To plan your search using ERIC Descriptors, follow these steps:

  1. Describe the topic in your own words.
  2. Divide the topic into major concepts.
  3. Use the Thesaurus to locate the appropriate Descriptors for each concept of the topic.
  4. Add the Descriptor(s) to your search.

•If you'd like to take a shortcut, simply do a keyword search, retrieve a record that looks relevant to your topic, and then examine the Descriptors. You can click on one of the Descriptors to start a new search."

Adapted from ERIC

More Information about the Thesaurus