What is the Education Resources Information Center?

ERIC, the Education Resources Information Center, is a powerful research tool, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, that provides access to education literature and resources from more than 1,000 journals. This database is particularly useful for education researchers, teachers, administrators, parents, and students in teacher-preparation programs.

Some of the topics covered include Vocational Education, Counseling, Disabilities and Gifted Education, Early Childhood Education, Higher Education, Languages and Linguistics, Teacher Education, Reading and Communication, Science Education, Mathematics Education, and Social Studies Education.

Searching:

Basic Search looks for your keyword search term in the ERIC database. If you want to limit your search in any way, you'll want to go to Advanced Search, by clicking below the main search box.

Advanced Search allows you more options for specifying your search terms and narrowing down your focus.

Example 1: You want to find some recent articles about language acquisition, and you only want to see search results for articles that are available in full text.

1. Enter your search term in the search box
2. In the "Limit your results" section, check the box marked Full Text
3. Limit the range of publication dates to your preferred time frame
4. Click the Search button

Example 2: You would like to search for full-text articles about community colleges, but not universities.

1. Enter your first search term in the first search box
2. Select "not" beside the second search box
3. Enter your second search term in the second search box
4. Select "SU" from the drop-down menu beside both search boxes
5. In the "Limit your results" section, check the box marked Full Text
6. Click the Search button

Search Tips:

• You can limit or expand your search by using any combination of Boolean terms (AND, OR, and NOT) with your search terms.
• You can limit your search to a specific educational level or intended audience for more focused results.

Browsing:

This is a useful strategy when you want to see what types of subjects and journals are included in the database but you don't know exactly what you want to search for. You can browse through indexes by selecting the "Indexes" button at the very top of the screen. Indexes are available by Author, Educational Level, Descriptors (or "Subject"), Intended Audience and other index categories. These indexes can help you select a topic or familiarize yourself with the resources available through ERIC.

For more help and information:

While using ERIC you may click on any one of the blue circles with a white question mark. These Help buttons provide additional information and advice while you are using the ERIC database.

This page was revised by Hannah Norton in Spring 2009.
This page was created by Julia Mitschke in Spring 2007.
INF 382S: Library Instruction and Information Literacy, taught by Dr. Loriene Roy
School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin