Book reviews

AskERIC , ,http://www.askeric.org/. and AskERIC Question Archives,,http://www.askeric.org/Virtual/Qa/archives/., ERIC Clearinghouse on Information &Technology, Syracuse University, 621 Skytop Road, Suite 160, Syracuse, New York13244-5290, Phone: (800) 464-9107; (315) 443-3640, Email:,eric@ericir.syr.edu.,sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.

Since November 1992, AskERIC,http://www.askeric.org., a project of the ERICClearinghouse on Information & Technology at Syracuse University, has provided a widerange of information services to educators. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education,AskERIC’s site offers online lesson plans, education resources, a searchable citation data-base for education documents, searchable archives of education-related mailing lists, and ane-mail question-answering service. As with many federal government sites in the recentchangeover of the administration, AskERIC was redesigned in 2001 with changes to the“look and feel” of the entire site as well as new features such as a “Site Tour” and searchable“Question Archives.” This review will provide an overview of the “new” AskERIC site withdiscussion of overall information content and usability as well recently-added features.

EASE OF USE CRITERIA

Navigation

Navigation is consistent throughout the new site. Each page has a horizontal graphic barat the top linking the main Search, Topics A-Z, Site Map, and Site Tour pages, and a verticalgraphic bar on the left linking to the Homepage, About AskERIC, the ERIC Database, Askan ERIC Expert, the Question Archive, Lesson Plans, Mailing Lists, Feedback, Sponsors,Privacy Statement, Link Policy, and Disclaimer. Additional special links also sometimesappear on the lefthand sidebar within particular sections, such as links in the QuestionArchive section to see “Latest Archive Responses” or within the Lesson Plans section to“Submit a Lesson Plan.”

Most AskERIC visitors will be able to use their graphics-enabled browsers to easilynavigate the imagemaps and view pages. Lynx visitors must scroll past imagemaps at the topof every page, a minor annoyance, but then can easily access information and links. The sitealso provides “printer friendly” text versions of pages in the Question Archive and ResourceCollection. The new “Site Tour” section, which provides an excellent overview of thecontent of the site, requires Java-enabled browsers and so will not be accessible to all users.

Pergamon

Government Information Quarterly 18 (2001) 257–264

0740-624X/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.PII: S0740-624X(01)00080-6

Searching Access

The main Search page,http://www.askeric.org/Search/offers several search interfacesfor the various site collections including an AskERIC citation database search, a Mailing ListArchives search, and a combined search interface for the Lesson Plans, Resource Collection,and Question Archive. Single-collection searching is also available by going directly to thefront pages of the Question Archive, Lesson Plans, or Mailing List Archives, each of whichprovides collection-specific keyword search boxes. GEM (Gateway to Education Materials)meta-tagging is used for the Lesson Plans and Question Archive with an Inktomi Ultraseeksearch engine. Search help documentation is easily accessible and well written, providingclear instructions and examples of how to use different search features.

Browsing Access

“Browse by subject” access was not directly available from the front page of the QuestionArchives, other than for a small representative sampling of directly-linked question re-sponses (13 directly-linked responses were available during site evaluation in May 13–19,2001.) However, users could click away from the main Archives page to the ResourceCollection subject directory on the homepage,http://www.askeric.org/.or the “TopicsA–Z” page ,http://www.askeric.org/Search/topicsA-Z.shtml. in the hope that a relevantQuestion Archive response might appear as a link on a Resource Collection subject page.

INFORMATION CONTENT CRITERIA

Information Content and Format

At the time of this review, the largest number of question responses this researcher wasable to retrieve using the Question Archive search engine was 146 responses, while the SiteSearch page (which searches AskERIC Resources, the Question Archive and Lesson Plans)retrieved 2,557 items. Browsing “Topics A–Z” provided resources on 335 subjects. TheAskERIC site tour gives the estimate of more than 3,000 education resources in the site andover 1,000 lesson plans. The site’s ERIC database also provides access to more than 1million document citations.

Format of “Question Archives responses” usually included Web sites, citations to ERICdocuments and/or links to full text ERIC Digest items, and contact information for organi-zations and ERIC Clearinghouses. Some responses also referred to listserv or Usenet groups.“Resource Collection” pages often contained fewer items but sometimes offered links toAskERIC Question Archive Responses in addition to the other types of sources. Web sitesgiven were not limited to government sites but also included some commercial and organi-zation sites. Topics covered ranging from educational theory (“Montessori Method”) toeducational practice (“class size,” “student behavior”) to subjects taught (“mathematics,”“Spanish”) as well as miscellaneous topics of interest to educators (“recycling computers,”“viruses.”)

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Updating/Currency

Pages in the site did not include a “last updated” date, so it was not always possible todetermine currency of pages. However when visited for this review during the week of May13-19, 2001, AskERIC’s Question Archives page featured a timely question response inhonor of May 2001 as National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Some sections, such asthe Question Archive and Lesson Plans, include lists of the latest updates to that section(“Latest Archive Responses,” “Latest Lesson Plans.”) Information about other additions canbe found in the monthly electronic newsletter “AskERIC Update,” which began in March2001 and is available online in the site or by e-mail subscription.

One section noted on the site as being maintained without further updates is the “oldAskERIC” section,http://askeric.org/Old_Askeric/., providing access to items “we didn’thave the heart to permanently delete” including an archive of older “InfoGuides.” Usersvisiting this section may be encounter outdated links and broken images. Policy Informationand Attribution The site provides substantial resources and information about AskERICitself, including standard links from every page to “About AskERIC” and “Sponsors” as wellas a clearly-written “Privacy Policy.” Various Question Archive responses and ResourceCollection pages also provide information about AskERIC.

The site also includes a “Link Policy” page with the criteria used in selecting Internetresources, and a “Disclaimer” page regarding the content of outside links. Full contactinformation is provided, and a convenient Web-based “Feedback” page for comments andsuggestions is also available.

SUMMARY

New site features such as the Question Archive, Site Tour and AskERIC Update news-letter are excellent additions to a site already highly valued by educators and the generalpublic. During the review period, AskERIC was also experimenting with a live chat serviceto assist users who needed help searching the site. AskERIC continues to serve as a centralpoint for online services to the education community and as an innovative example of onlineachievement for e-government projects and partnerships.

Lorri MonElectronic Government Information Services Librarian,

University of Illinois at Chicago,the Main Library (m/c 234),

Documents, Maps, Microforms andCurriculum Department,

801 South Morgan Street,Chicago, Illinois 60607,

,lmon@uic.edu..

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