General Search Form Help

You can use this form to retrieve records from the Education Resource Organizations Directory (EROD). Just fill out the form and click the Search button (located at the bottom of the form). The system will then display a Summary list of all the records that met your search criteria.

[Note: a common search problem is to over specify the search, resulting in zero records meeting the search criteria. You will most likely only need to enter information in 2 to 4 fields to complete your search.]

This screen describes the following:

• Field Descriptions
• Field Relationships
• Search Values
• Field Help

All Text

This is the broadest of the search options. The All Text field contains information from all of the textual fields (e.g., title, address, director, contact, description, audience(s), publication(s), service(s), special collection(s), subject(s), state(s)/territory(ies), etc.).

State(s)/Territory(ies) Served

The State(s)/Territory(ies) Served field lists the states and/or territories that the organization, program, or resource serves. To search a single state, type in the state, (e.g., Maryland) or the two-letter abbreviation(e.g.,MD).

Subject(s)

The Subject(s) field lists the subject codes that further define the organization, program, or resource. Examples: adult education, critical thinking, technology education.

Please note that there may be more than one subject code used to further define the programs for which you are searching. Do not overly restrict your search. For example, if you are searching for information on learning disabilities you could also use dyslexia, learning problems, and/or exceptional persons.

Title

The Title is a mandatory field which specifies the title of the service, program, or organization. Examples: Northern California Comprehensive Assistance Center, South Atlantic Regional Resource Center.

Description

The Description field contains a brief narrative summary of the organization, program, or resource.

Audience(s)

The Audience(s) field lists the groups/types of people the organization, program, or resource serves. Examples: teachers/professors, parents, students.

To search for programs that are open to anyone use General public.

Service(s)

The Service(s) field lists the type of services the organization, program, or resource offers. Examples: information dissemination, technical assistance, referrals.

Type of Organization

The Type of Organization field organizes the resources into like categories. Examples: information centers/associations/clearinghouses, state literacy resource centers, regional education laboratories.

Geographic Scope

Geographic Scope is a mandatory field which specifies the geographic scope of the organization, program, or resource. The three levels are: State, Regional, and National.

Additional Fields

The following three fields contain additional contact information for an organization. They may be useful to the user who wants to limit their search, based on the presence of data in one or more of these fields. They are: E-Mail Address, Toll Free Number, and URL Address.

• If you select AND, each record must contain both the values you enter in the All Text field and all the values you enter in the other fields.

• If you select OR, each record must contain either the values you enter in the All Text field or all the values you enter in the other fields.

• If you select AND NOT, each record must contain the values you enter in the All Text field but must not contain any of the values you enter in the other fields.

Search Values

The search value is the value that you want each record's field data compared against. The search value boxes are located to the right of the field label.

For fields with a down-arrow at the right of the search value box, click on the down-arrow for a pop-up/pull-down menu of valid choices and select one of the choices.

For fields without a down-arrow, type the value you want to find. You do not need to enclose your search values within any special characters (such as double quotes). The search is not case-sensitive and values may occur in any order in the field or search value box.