ERIC and Historical Newspapers

ERIC and Historical Newspapers

by Savannah Soraghan -
Number of replies: 0

  • Scope: What is the scope of the database (e.g. date range, types of sources, topic areas)? 

ERIC: Covers 1966-current and multiple subject areas pertaining to education including: vocational education, higher education, and second-language learning. In terms of types of sources it has:  journal articles, conferences, meetings, government documents, theses, dissertations, reports, audiovisual media, bibliographies, directories, books and monographs.

Historical Newspapers: Covers many things but the homepage highlights certain collections/specific databases to help users initially narrow their searches such as a Chinese Newspaper Collection, the Wall Street Journal, and the Philadelphia Tribune. The time period covered depends on the news ap

  • Features: What specific search features does this database have (look at things like the advanced search, if it has a thesaurus, or look up any how-to documentation the database provides)

ERIC: Has a very prominent and accessible option to filter the search for peer reviewed items. Additionally, when your first go into the database it asks if you would like help to find the most relevant sources. You can filter/sort your search by relevance, source type, publication date, title, subject, language, education level, and target audience. The database provides the abstract first, making it east to read, and also has citation options.

Historical Newspapers: It provides a document with search tips that has specific field codes, abbreviation references, and subject classifications to help with the search. It also recognizes quotation marks in the search bar to specify key phrases and recognizes the word OR in searches. It has an advanced search option where you can narrow down the document type, which databases you want, and what your key word searches are looking for (author, title, abstract) 

  • Use Cases: Based on your exploration, come up with some hypothetical use cases and example searches that you could imagine a student doing in this database.

ERIC: This would be of great use to students in education, child development, or psychology classes that focus on student behavior who need to write research papers. It is a subject-specific database but it still has a wide variety of information. Additionally, I think professors would use this depending on what they're searching for. 

Historical Newspapers: This is a great source for anyone who needs primary resources. It is full of quotes from real people who experienced historical events.