There are three versions of ERIC available to WIU student, staff, and faculty: The United States Department of Education (USDE) version of ERIC is hosted by Syracuse University and is freely available to anyone. WIU also allows access to the First Search and OVID versions of ERIC. These versions are available only to WIU Students. Below is a table comparing all three.
| USDE ERIC | FIRST SEARCH ERIC | OVID ERIC |
| It's free to anyone anywhere anytime. | Searches can be Restricted to Holdings | Automatic Hyperlinked Searches |
| Most Complete Record | Automatic Hyperlinked Searches | Ability to Combine Searches |
| The online ERIC Thesaurus is easily accessible and includes an easy to use search wizard | Linked Access to WIU Catalog |
Below are examples of the same record as seen in all three interfaces. You will notice slight differences between the free version of ERIC and the other versions in the number of Identifiers listed. You will also notice that what ERIC and First Search call a Publication Type OVID, for reasons of its own, calls a Record Type.
If you click the fields in the free ERIC record below, a text box will appear explaining the meaning/use of that field. ERIC provides a page defining all the fields at http://askeric.org/Eric/Help/fields.shtml
ERIC from USDE via Syracuse University
