The Department of Education's New ERIC Search Interface

Basic search is word by word.

Truncation-- or stemming -- is automatic unless search term(s) is put in "quotation marks." Even descriptors must be in quotation marks to be searched as-is.
Complete explanation is on the Help pages which exist only as pop-ups and cannot be linked to directly. You need to chose "Help" from an ERIC page.

Results order

Results display in "relevance" order. When a search is just a single descriptor or short phrase, it is a bit of a mystery how this relevance works. It appears to favor ED items over EJ but that may be a function of their longer abstracts, and hence greater word count. Sorting is not possible. Users may sign up for My ERIC to allow them to mark wanted items for email or download.

New search engine debuts September 1, 2004.

The new search interface is very simplified, easy to read, and focused on electronic full text. It also incorporates a lot of search techniques from web search engines. It ranks by relevancy and looks at how indexed items are interrelated to make suggestions for other search terms to try.
Future plans

From the ERIC User Group meeting June 27, 2005

Currently in development:

True Boolean nested searching and an Expert search interface

Thesaurus descriptor search moved into the main search block area.

Link to holdings using open URL -- the contractor was looking for Beta test sites.

Citation managagement (the ability to mark items and create personal sets to be saved/emailed)
What does the contract say?
The contract calls for several features for the new product. These are gradually being developed:
Every aspect of ERIC is in development. Contractor appears to be somewhat responsive to academic calendar concerns. p. 17 "The contractor shall continuously refine the online system, evaluate and recommend new technologies and online products and services for improving the content, infrastructure, interface(s), usability, efficiency, and functionality of the online system. All proposals shall be approved by the COR prior to implementation." [The contract never defines COR, but it appears to refer to the person at the Department to whom the contractor would report.]
Bold items not yet implemented. Search terms are not highlighted, other aspects of display are clearer, but they are still moving e.g. link to full-text moved from top right to bottom left. p. 18 Its features shall be designed to optimize user efficiency, e.g.,(a) case-insensitive search terms, (b) spell check on search terms, (c) visually distinct information that is critical to users' searches, (d) error messages that offer suggestions for fixing search criteria, explain why users did not get results, or highlight the errors made, (e) clear feedback when a search does not yield any results, (f) clear directions for formatting search criteria when format is important, (g) simple definitions for important terms, (h) terms related to a user's search to help identify additional related information.

Nstein subcontractor for search engine

The contractor shall use, and update as needed, a high-quality search engine, with features and functionality that are comparable to the best commercial search engine. (Contract, p. 17)

From an Nstein press release:

Nstein Technologies signs contract with Computer Sciences Corporation 08/05/2004 - Nstein solutions to be used for the world’s largest educational database
      Montreal, Quebec, August 5, 2004 - Nstein Technologies Inc. (TSX-V: EIN), an emerging leader in new Business Intelligence (BI) solutions, revealed today the details of a contract previously announced on April 29, 2004, signed with Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC) – a leading global information technology (IT) services company – to develop the world’s largest educational database, the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), a project funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
      The U.S Department of Education has teamed up with CSC and subcontractors like Nstein Technologies to develop and operate a brand new version of the ERIC database. Established in 1966, ERIC is composed of more than one million bibliographic records. Its goal is to give educators, researchers and the general public ready access to high-quality, education-related materials through the Internet.
      “Nstein is proud to be associated with this extremely ambitious educational database project and to provide leading-edge research and data-retrieval solutions for one of the U.S. Department of Education’s most strategic projects,” stated Mario Girard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nstein Technologies.
     “Not only is this contract with CSC, a major player in the field of systems integration, an important business opportunity for Nstein in the area of education, it opens a door for the Company to develop American government business and business in the United States in general,” Mr. Girard added.

January 9, 2006