Archived Information

Access for All: A New National Library for Tomorrow's Learners - February 1997

Appendix A:
National Library of Education

Past and Current Programs

Description

The National Library of Education (NLE) is the largest federally funded library in the world devoted entirely to education. Housed at NLE are more than 200,000 books and over 800 periodical subscriptions in addition to studies, reports, an extensive microfiche collection, and CD-ROM databases. Currently, it holds books on education, management, public policy, and related social sciences; dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, directories, abstracts, indexes, and legal and other research sources in print and CD-ROM; current and historical journals and newsletters; and microforms. Special collections include rare books published before 1800, mostly in education, historical books from 1800 to 1964; early American textbooks, 1775-1900; modern American textbooks, 1900-1959; U.S. Department of Education and predecessor agencies reports, bibliographies, and studies; archived speeches, correspondence, policy papers, and reports; and children's classics. NLE also contains the U.S. Department of Education's Online Library, a growing collection of over 16,000 electronic files of text and data containing information on Department of Education programs, policies, news, and research findings. In addition, the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is a part of NLE. ERIC is the world's largest bibliographic database related to education, currently containing nearly 900,000 bibliographic records and making available, through its network of clearinghouses, over 1,300 topical reports and digests. NLE thus consists of an important core physical collection and an extensive and highly dispersed collection of electronic resources.

Background

The origins of the National Library of Education date to before the Civil War when the Congress determined that it was appropriate and important for the federal government to assist in the collection and national dissemination of information and statistics about education. A national consensus on the importance of this limited information role has continued for over 130 years and across the life span of the successive offices and agencies that have been responsible for education information.

In March of 1994 Congress created the new National Library of Education. It did so because of concern about the quality and management of educational information in the U.S. Department of Education; a desire to provide wider access to high quality information for all Americans; and in the belief that the information revolution required that educators and their information providers develop new and better ways to serve the cause of improving American education. The National Library of Education consolidated a group of information services previous scattered around the U.S. Department of Education and provides the means to make them collectively much better and more responsive than they could have been separately. The merged services included the former U.S. Department of Education Research Library; the former Education Information Branch, which handled toll-free requests for publications about education research and statistics; and the Education Reference Service, which responded to inquiries for education information and statistics. These former units now operate in partnership with the ERIC program, the world's largest and best bibliographic database related to education, and the Institutional Communications Network (INet), which operates the Department of Education's Internet and World Wide Web sites and online library.

Current Organization and Status

Presently the National Library of Education is organized into three divisions corresponding to the mission and functional priorities of its authorizing legislation. These divisions are: Resource Sharing and Cooperation (RSCD), Reference and Information Services (RISD), and Collections and Technical Services (CTSD). A small Office of the Director coordinates library planning and operations and undertakes special projects.

Resource Sharing and Cooperation Division. The Resource Sharing and Cooperation Division houses both the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) program and the Institutional Communications Network (INet).

The National Library of Education has an excellent model for resource sharing and cooperation in ERIC, a distributed system of clearinghouses and support components working within a collaborative framework toward common goals of educational database building and information sharing. ERIC is the world's largest database devoted to education. In addition to ERIC's name recognition, 30-year history of technical innovations, and reputation for exemplary service, ERIC has a strong network of partners, including more than 400 organizations who work in cooperation with ERIC to promote the use of education information among their constituents, no-cost cooperative arrangements with several adjunct clearinghouses and corporate partners, and 2,000 acquisition arrangements, and relationships with national and international counterparts.

Technology, particularly electronic networking, will play a key role in most of NLE's major activities, including resource sharing, cooperation, and the provision of one-stop information and referral service. ERIC has been a pioneer in the use of electronic technologies for information delivery from the beginning-from the early days of Dialog through the birth of CD-ROM and from local electronic mail to the advent of the Internet. An early adopter of the World Wide Web and other Internet innovations, ERIC is responsible for some of the most popular and highly rated education services on the Internet, including AskERIC, the National Parent Information Network, ERIC Digests Online, and more than 20 others.

NLE's INet created the Department's award-winning World Wide Web (WWW) site, hosts information for most of the Department's offices and programs, and provides a one-stop entry point to more than 50 other Department-sponsored Web sites. NLE has developed the standards and guidelines for Web use that have been adopted by the Department and adapted by other agencies and the WWW Federal Consortium. According to the recent U.S. Department of Education World Wide Web standards, prepared by NLE staff,

"The federal government is making a major commitment to electronic networking as a primary means of providing information and services to customers. The World Wide Web is a key enabling technology for the vision of one-stop shopping. If the dozens of Department-sponsored WWW servers adhere to a reasonable set of WWW standards and guidelines for the organization and presentation of information, customers will be able to enter the system at any point and tap not only the specific server they first contact but also the full resources of the entire interlinked system of which that server is a member component."
-- U.S. Department of Education World Wide
Web Server Standards and Guidelines
March 18, 1996

                    One Stop Shopping with Many Entrances                                   Customer                                      |     ---------------------------------------------------------     |        |       |                                      | Telephone  Letter  E-Mail                           Computer Search     |        |       |                                      |      |        |       |                                      |   Customer Service Centers                 Distributed Electronic Repositories   ------------------------                 -----------------------------------    IRC          NLE                        ED Online Library    AskERIC, NPIN    TACs         Labs                       Lab Network          Federal Agecies    ED Offices   RTECs                      ED Offices           State Agencies    AskERIC      Clearinghouses             Other ED-funded      Education and                                              Sites                Library                                                                   Associations

Legend:

IRC: ED Information Resource Center (1-800-USA-LEARN)
Labs: Regional Educational Laboratories
RTECs: Regional Technology in Education Consortia
NPIN: National Parent Information Network
TACs: Technical Assistance Centers (includes Comprehensive Regional Assistance Centers, or CCs)
Reference and Information Services Division. Since NLE's establishment in March 1994, the Reference and Information Services Division (RISD) has served as the hub for access to information resources maintained by NLE and for dissemination of OERI publications. RISD, along with ERIC and INet, is the key element in NLE's one-stop information and referral operation, a function mandated in the legislation to provide high-quality response to user inquiries via telephone (a toll-free 800 number must be maintained by law), fax, e-mail, mail, and visit. One of the Library's major challenges is to maintain and improve the quality of its reference and referral services, for it is this service that is usually a customer's first contact with NLE.

During the last 2 years the National Library of Education's ready reference service has seen the volume of reference and referral service more than double and now answers an average of 300 pieces of mail a day and 2,000 telephone calls per week, not counting special assistance requests from principal offices of the Department. These numbers are expected to continue to rise rapidly as the Library and its toll-free service become more widely known. The ERIC system also operates information services and toll-free access numbers for each Clearinghouse and for the system as a whole through ACCESS ERIC. ERIC components now answer nearly 200,000 toll-free information requests per year, or approximately 3,800 a week.

Electronic mail user inquiries are growing exponentially. RISD is beginning to respond to these users as the ready reference staff obtain the equipment to enable them to respond to such inquiries. The INet service is currently recording over 2 million "hits" (instances of users logging on to the Internet site) per month, or over 71,000 per day. The ERIC system is reporting a total of over 36,000 log-ons per week from all its access sites.

Collections and Technical Services Division. The current collection housed in NLE is one of the nation's major resources for education information and the premier federal resource in that subject. A physical collection of over 200,000 titles is augmented by an extensive serials collection, microfiche and CD-ROM collections, and important special collections including archival materials, former National Institutes of Education papers, historical materials, rare books, and early American textbooks. The National Library of Education also collects and disseminates Department publications and statistical data about education. In addition to managing the collection, Collections and Technical Services Division (CTSD) also provides for public access to National Library of Education collection resources via an online catalog and interlibrary loan and circulation services.

An important new aspect of the work of the Division is managing the publications distribution for the U.S. Department of Education. This project, which is handled through a specialized contractor, will permit the Library to achieve bibliographic control of collection materials produced by the Department.

Office of the Director. In addition to overall management of the Library, the Office of the Director has direct responsibility for the management of marketing, outreach, and special projects. Marketing and outreach activities include technical assistance to local school systems and library services on matters such as professional development and electronic information access; promoting the services of the National Library of Education through the media, exhibitions, and presentations; managing the Library's Quarterly Lecture Series featuring noted experts discussing new developments in education and information services; and preparing publications and other products designed to help users learn about and use Library resources. Among the special projects undertaken by the Office of the Director are the managing the National Library of Education Advisory Task Force and developing the U.S. Education Information Network.
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[Concluding Statement] [Table of Contents] [Appendix C: Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations Used in this Report]
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