The tale of two ERICS: Factors influencing the development of the first ERIC and its transformation into a national system

This article describes how the original ERIC was established as a conventional, centralized information center within the Office of Education in 1964, and how this initial ERIC was transformed from into a decentralized national system about 18 months later. The history of the two ERICs also illustra...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Society for Information Science 2000, Vol.51 (6), p.567-575
Main Author: Burchinal, Lee G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bibliographic control
Bibliographic data bases
Bureaucracy
Congressional committees
Consultation
Contractors
Decision making
Education
Educational Media
Educational Objectives
Educational research
Educational Resources
Educational sciences
Elementary education
ERIC
Feasibility studies
Federal funding
Financial Support
Foreign language instruction
Government Role
Historical Background
History
Information Centers
Information services
Information Systems
Interpersonal Relationship
Language instruction
Libraries, documentation
Library science
National libraries
National Programs
Office of Education
Online data bases
Online databases
Organizational Change
Personal relationships
Political Issues
Professional associations
R&D
Research & development
Secondary education
Studies
Systems development
Teaching aids
Technological Advancement
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Description
Summary:This article describes how the original ERIC was established as a conventional, centralized information center within the Office of Education in 1964, and how this initial ERIC was transformed from into a decentralized national system about 18 months later. The history of the two ERICs also illustrates how knowledge and expertise—in this case, that represented by advances in information systems technology and its applications—combined with interpersonal relationships within a bureaucracy, federal funding decisions, and organizational changes to shape the development of a major national information service. The time period covered by the article is from 1959, when planning for the first ERIC began, to June 1967, when the decentralized system became fully operational. Most of the description and analysis, however, is limited to the 1965–66 period, when the decentralized system was conceptualized and implemented. Important developments in ERIC since 1967 are also described.
ISSN:0002-8231
2330-1635
1097-4571
2330-1643
DOI:10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(2000)51:6<567::AID-ASI8>3.0.CO;2-8