ZAI supports the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), a digital education resources library sponsored by the US Department of Education (DoED), as a subcontractor.
ERIC contains more than 1.6 million journal articles, reports, conference papers, Federal and state documents, and other content items. Since its initiation in 1966, ERIC has moved from a print-based system to a completely digital repository. ZAI oversees all record creation responsibilities, including uploading the records to the ERIC website.
At the outset of the contract, the DoED was not in a position to provide the stipulated processing system for creating ERIC records. Recognizing the enormous risk to the contract and to the ERIC user community, ZAI focused on defining and documenting the requirements for an Internet-based, workflow processing system. Working with its prime partner on the contract, ZAI was able to provide specifications for metadata fields, duplicate check facility, interface with an agreement management system, integrate with the ERIC Thesaurus of Descriptors, and perform other necessary functionality.
ZAI project staff participated in extensive testing of the new system—the Education Literature Validation and Indexing System (ELVIS)—identifying bugs and recommending further improvements to increase production efficiency. Meeting the department’s deadline, ZAI began producing 4,000 records each month and has been doing so ever since.
