Hey Folks,the Barbarians are at the doors, again!

I am passing along this information that is of prime importance for all educators and students. ERIC, acronym for Educational Resources Information Center, an educational database and clearinghouse of educational informationin the United States that provides a whole host of free essential materials and services for educators and students at all levels, is in danger of being destroyed.
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We need your help in saving ERIC.

The current ERIC contract ends on December 31, 2003. On April 10, the
Department of Education released a
draft statement of work for the ERIC system for the next contract period. The proposed changes to the system are devastating.

As proposed, the ERIC system will be reduced from 16 subject-specific Clearinghouses to one central automated Clearinghouse. There will be no
subject specific Clearinghouse web sites, no on-site content experts to answer questions or perform searches, no ERIC Digests, no bibliographies, and, possibly, no New Directions for Community Colleges, or ASHE ERIC
Reports.

Furthermore, additions to the database will be made by a group of clerks from a pre-approved list of journals, conferences, association, and
organizations. Thus, expert monitoring of the quality of research acquired for the database will be eliminated and important contributions from many colleges and independent scholars will no longer be part of the database.

By law, the Department is required to allow for public comment on this draft statement of work. There is no guarantee that an outpouring of
support will change the proposed statement of work, but without these efforts, it is clear that ERIC will be significantly impaired. If you wish
to offer support for the valuable services that ERIC has provided to
education scholars and practitioners since 1966, please send your comments to the following people before May 9 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time:

(1) Your U.S. senators and elected representatives
(2) Copy each letter to Secretary of Education, Rod Paige,
<mailto:Rod.Paige@ed.gov>Rod.Paige@ed.gov; Fax number: 202-401-0596,
(3) Copy each letter to Jeff Halstead (the contract specialist collecting
official responses to the draft statement):
<mailto:Jeff.C.Halsted@ed.gov>Jeff.C.Halsted@ed.gov Fax number: 202-708-9817

Please feel free to use the template available at
<http://www.saveeric.org/letter.htm>http://www.saveeric.org/letter.htm, or
to create your own letter. Apparently, faxes of letters written on your
institutional letterhead are most effective, but e-mails are also welcome. If you send e-mail, please make sure that you include your full
physical mailing address at the bottom of the letter or the message may be
discarded.

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Hope we can stop the devastation. We lost the State Library in Florida because not enough people spoke up!

Here in AZ some educational higher ups have been debating whether or not LIBRARIANS need to exist since all there is to know is on the internet anyway! An alarming number of recent grads don't seem to know what ERIC is or why they might want to use it. The quest for knowledge, alas, is petering out!