What are the possibilities for coordinating education information databases?

Abstract

ERIC is the closest thing to a national database covering the field of education and yet ERIC's coverage is not comprehensive and responsibility for providing information concerning educational resources of all types is fragmented. Given that ERIC cannot obtain the resources to increase its coverage, this article outlines what can be done to coordinate the various existing education information databases. Coordination is seen as possible both during database generation and the later search and retrieval phase. Specific recommendations are provided for four defined stages: (1) Coverage/Acquisitions/Selection; (2) Processing (Cataloging/Indexing/Abstracting); (3) Finding the Right Database to Search (Referral); (4) Retrieval.