The new system, when it's up and running later this year, is not expected to include all of the offerings that the clearinghouses produce now. "Our users can go on our Web site and download the full texts online," said Philip K. Piele, the director of the Clearinghouse on Educational Policy and Management at the University of Oregon in Eugene, which is the new incarnation of the former ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management.

"If you're looking for a full text on ERIC, you may have to pay a fee for it," said Mr. Piele, who also directed the former ERIC clearinghouse.

The federal Education Department had originally planned to award the contract for the new ERIC system in October. According to Grover J. "Russ" Whitehurst, the director of the department's Institute of Education Sciences, which oversees ERIC, the delay will likely set back the new system's startup by a month.

"It has turned out to be a complex procurement, and everybody's taking great care to make sure the final decision is defensible in every way," he said.

The EW article is found in Education Week, January 14, 2004, Vol. 23, number 18, page 20,21, or can be found online (free registration) at:] http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=18Eric.h23

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