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Knowledge is Infinite IN THIS ISSUEThe full newsletter (7.6 MB) is also available as a PDF file for downloading, viewing, and printing.
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The Educational Resource Information Center (ERIC) system has been characterized as the foundation of the National Library of Education. While this vision is still being developed, several projects at the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology and the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS) are providing components to this foundation. The latest projects include the GEM project, the Virtual Reference Desk, and the release of Electronic ERIC Documents on-line.
The Virtual Reference Desk:
EXPLORING DIGITAL REFERENCE SERVICES
By Judy Craig
The Virtual Reference Desk is an effort of the NLE and the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology to explore and support the emerging field of digital reference services. These services such as the MAD Scientist Network, Ask Dr. Math, and the NLE's own AskERIC service answer thousands of questions each week from the education community. The Virtual Reference Desk will create a common set of resources used to support these services including training materials, case studies of exemplary digital reference services, and a cross-subject question/answer knowledge base that will capture the information generated by these services. The project is helping to build the virtual reference desk for the emerging "virtual" National Library of Education. For more information, contact, David Lankes, Associate Director, ERIC/IT at 1-800-464-4100 or e-mail rdlankes@ericir.syr.edu.
The GEM Project: The Gateway to Educational Materials
By Judy Craig and David Lankes
The National Library of Education (NLE) is responding to the President's mandate to make sure that all Americans have the best education in the world. In addition, the NLE Advisory Task Force identified lesson plans and teacher guides as a top priority area in which NLE should apply library and information science expertise. Armed with both of these charges, the NLE is spearheading a Consortium effort called Gateway to Educational Materials, (GEM) which will provide the nation's teachers with "one-stop, any-stop" access to Internet lesson plans.
There are thousands of lesson plans and other curriculum units in web and gopher sites across the Internet. For most teachers, these valuable resources are difficult to find in an efficient, effective manner. The goal of the GEM project is to solve this resource access problem.
According to Michael B. Eisenberg, director of ERIC/IT, "This project's goal is to provide a new set of tools to get information into the hands of educators quickly and easily so that children can learn." This effort will create a standard way of describing educational materials and gathering these descriptions into a single union catalog. This catalog will create easy access to teaching and learning materials on the net...no matter where they reside.
The end of the first phase is September/October of 1997. For more information, contact Nancy Morgan, GEM Coordinator, ERIC/IT at 1-800-464-4100 or e-mail, nmorgan@ericir.syr.edu.