A Comparative Analysis of ERIC and LISA with an Emphasis on Database Composition and Authority Control as They Relate to Retrieval.

The ERIC and LISA (Library and Information Science Abstracts) databases are compared through a literature review and the analysis of an online search on a topic in librarianship. ERIC emphasizes education and includes serials, monographs, collections, and research reports for their coverage of some aspect of education. LISA is dedicated to topics in the field of library science and such related areas as publishing and bookselling. In the final analysis, ERIC was a superior source for information even though its scope is broader than library issues. A comparative analysis of coverage that included acquisition policy, types of material, currency, duplication, recall and precision, price, and the use of authority controls (thesaurus terms versus subject headings, specificity, exhaustivity, searchable field, and special problems) rated ERIC as better than LISA overall for library information. For some very specific topics, however, LISA might be the better source. (Contains 6 references.) (SLD)