How To Search
ERIC (Ebsco)

(Educational Resources Information Center)
EBSCO ERIC contains thousands of journal articles (EJ) and government documents (ED) published from 1966 forward on education (preschool through college). Many articles and documents published after 1984 have texts available on the computer.

Getting Started

Simply click "ERIC (Ebsco Online)" on the Libraries database list.

Searching

Fill in the bubble for "standard search". Type specific keywords that describe your topic in the "Find" box (exclude common prepositions and articles such as an, an, the, of, in, from, etc. unless they are part of a well-know phrase such as "due process of law"). Follow the guidelines below when searching in "standard search":
>Connect the keywords with AND, OR, NOT.
science and math finds articles and documents containing both science and math
teaching or instruction finds articles and documents that contain either teaching or instruction
science not astronomy finds articles and documents about science but not astronomy

>Use an * on the root of a keyword to find variants of the word.
Example: astro* finds astronaut, astronomy, astronomical, etc.

>Enclose phrases in quotation marks.
Example: "special education" finds articles with the exact phrase "special education".
"due process of law" and schools find articles with the exact phrase "due process of law" and the keyword law.

>If necessary, use parenthesis to organize the search. ERIC will execute the operation in the parenthesis first.
Example: teachers and (elementary or primary) finds articles that deal with teachers at either the elementary or primary levels.

Improving Searches

>Advanced Search or Guided Search: click on "Advanced Search" or "Guided Search" to limit searches to these areas: author, title, subject, journal or document, audience, availability, government level, county of publication, language, publication types such as tests, A/V materials, conference papers

>Thesaurus: Look up terms in the thesaurus to find additional keywords for your search or help you narrow a topic.

Viewing articles and documents

Articles with texts available will have one of these four messages under the title:

> Full text-click here to see the text in a normal format.
> Full Page Image-click here to see a high-quality, PDF copy of the text.
> Linked Full-Text--click here to see the text in a normal format.
> Full Text from EDRS-click here to retrieve the text in a normal format.
> If the text icons are not visible, the online full-text is not available online in the ERIC database for free. See the next section for options.

What if ERIC does not have text for an article or document?

Ask a librarian to assist you when the online full-text text is not available for free.

Option 1: If the text is a government document (designated by an "ED" number), you can go to the McLure Education Library where 95% of the ED documents are available on microfiche.

Option 2: If the text is a journal article (EJ), search in the Libraries Catalog (http://library.ua.edu/) for the journal containing the article. Use "Basic Search" and highlight "Journal Title". Type in the name of the journal (not the title of the article) and click "Search". If the library owns the journal, check to see if the library owns the proper month and year. (If multiple entries appear, click each entry in order to check the month and year).

Option 3: Other databases, such as Education Full-Text, may contain the full-texts of journal articles (EJ).

Option 4: Many articles may be ordered through the Interlibrary Loan System (http://illserver.lib.ua.edu/illiad/logon.html)

Printing, emailing, and saving

Special Note: Some ERIC articles and documents are hundreds of pages long.

> For Full Texts:

Printing:
> Click the "Print" button at the top of the article.
> Click the "Print" button.
> Click "OK" on the pop-up window.
> To return to the list of articles: Click the "Back" icon at the top left of the article (Not the "Back" button on the browser bar). Click "ResultsList" to return to the list of articles.

Emailing:
>Click the "Email" button at the top of the article and then type in your email address. Click "Send"

Saving:
>Click the "Save" button at the top of the article.
>Click "Save" on the right side of the screen.
>Select "File" then "Save as" from your browser's toolbar above. Be sure to save as a plain text file (.txt) or an HTML file (.html).
> For Full Page Images or Full-text from EDRS: Click the printer or disk icon at the top left of the screen. Or, select the blue email feature at the top right of the screen.