Assessing the Provision of Networked Services: ERIC as an Example

ERIC is an important component of the U.S. Department of Education’s dissemination activity. It has been a source of innovation, and is a powerful tool that supports a range of user services. However, largescale adoption of the Internet into the program has lead to a fragmented ERIC that finds its greatest value, service, marginalizing its biggest product, the ERIC database. This chapter examines key components of ERIC for assessment and proposes models, key questions and solutions for improving ERIC. The paper suggests that an experiential evaluation approach, combined with deductive modeling, may offer one way to redesign a program such as ERIC. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH R. David Lankes [email protected] works in the area of digital reference and education information. He completed his Ph.D. from Syracuse University, School of Information Studies. He is the co-founder of the AskERIC service, and principle investigator of the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) and the Virtual Reference Desk (VRD) projects as well as director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology. He has also served as a visiting scholar to Harvard's Graduate School of Education. Additional background information can be found at: http://www.askeric.org/~rdlankes .