Review from: The Charleston Advisor, July 2006
Review from: Reference Reviews (UK) July 2006
Review from: Choice, March 2006

Review from: The Charleston Advisor, July 2006

Product Description
Education Index Retrospective (EIR) provides comprehensive indexing to approximately 570 education-related periodicals that are international in scope. EIR includes over 800,000 article citations, including citations to book reviews. The indexing begins in 1929, though there are 475 entries for items published prior to that date, and ends in 1983. The EIR is the equivalent of the first 33 volumes of the well-known print product, Education Index. It is important to note that EIR is a citation index and does not include abstracts or full text. Full-text links to library-owned database content are available and utilize SFX powered OpenURL technology. The software comes free with the product. EIR was compiled by H.W. Wilson librarians and subject specialists employing consistent bibliographic standards.

The EIR is easy to use and offers a number of search options including Basic Search, Advanced Search, Browse, Thesaurus, and a convenient Search History. Online access to journal indexing that is nearly a century old will delight researchers in the field of education as well as other related disciplines. The EIR fills a unique niche in the database market. Although the primary audience for EIR is graduate students and faculty members, the product will be of value to undergraduates, working professionals, and lay people interested in the history and development of education through the century. The EIR can be combined with other Wilson products such as Education Full Text, Education Abstracts, or Education Index to create a comprehensive, as well as current, search experience. The EIR is one of many databases available in the Wilson Retrospective Collection that provides online access to historical indexing.

Critical Evaluation
Education Index Retrospective provides access to a range of journal citations from scholarly, peer-reviewed journals to lay magazines. The index also includes citations from a small number of relevant annuals and yearbooks. A few of the key journals included are Harvard Educational Review, Chronicle of Higher Education, Childhood Education, Comparative Education, and Educational Forum. EIR also contains journals from related fields such as psychology, sociology, and business. The breadth of coverage provided by EIR is extensive. Typical search topics could include: literacy, preschool children, adult education, elementary education, tenure, and many, many more.

Each citation in the EIR consists of the following fields: title, personal author, journal name, source, publication year, physical description, subject, historical subject, document type, accession number, and persistent URL. Of great value is the controlled vocabulary used in the subject and historical subject fields. The controlled search vocabulary, included in the Thesaurus, will help researchers develop precise search terminology needed to locate relevant articles; this feature is important as citation indexes are less forgiving then full-text products when it comes to searching. Related to the Thesaurus and of special interest to researchers is the fact that the folks at H.W. Wilson Company took the time to update subject headings to reflect modern terminology. Original subject headings are retained in a unique field to document word usage history. A few examples of these updates are: “illiteracy” to “literacy,” “negro” to “black,” and “feeble- minded” to “mentally handicapped.”

Searching
EIR employs the familiar Wilson search screen…. The interface is…intuitive to use and offers a number of ways to search and ways to limit a search. Four main types of searches are available on the left side menu. Basic Search is a single search box. Advanced Search is three search boxes with pull down menus to specify field selections, and Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT). Browse functionality allows researchers to enter a word or phrase and search a select field. Finally, the searchable Thesaurus is available to search within Wilson’s controlled vocabulary. Researchers can search by publication year, as well as utilize proximity, relational, evidence, score, concept, and natural language modifiers. A brave researcher may use up to 30 operators to conduct a specific query. Stemming is automatic. Limit features that are valid when utilizing the EIR include document type (feature article or book review) and physical description (bibliographic footnotes, bibliography, chart, diagram, facsimile, footnotes, graph, illustration, map, other, plan, plate, portrait, and table)….

Customizing
Researchers will find it very simple to create custom displays and output screens by utilizing the Customize Display option available on the first and subsequent screens. Customize Display allows a user to determine the order in which records are displayed and which fields and formats are included easily. These choices can be used, by the click of a button, for all displayed, e-mailed, printed, or saved records. Researchers may click through to the full text of articles if the content is owned and available electronically. Other link options included per citation are a link to a library’s catalog and an ILL request form.

Output Options
Output options such as print, e-mail, save, and export are straightforward, robust, and easy to use. The Output option is available on the left-side menu. Context-sensitive instructions are included for each option. Print options include which records to send, which fields to include, and whether to include search history, record numbers, and highlighted search words. A neat feature provides researchers an estimate, at the click of a button, of the number of pages the output will yield. E-mail options include the same options as print, plus a format choice, which includes HTML, MLA, APA, XML, Comma Separated, and Plain Text. Save options are the same as
e-mail. The final output option allows searchers to export desired records to bibliographic software, the choices of which currently include RefWorks and EndNote.

Additional Features
EIR has a number of special features to trumpet. The first is the WilsonWeb Journal Directory available on the left-side menu. The Journal Directory is comprehensive and very easy to use and allows researchers to view the bibliographic data for journals included in the index easily. The list contains all active, ceased, and dropped titles, as well as name changes. Additional information includes: start dates, stop dates, ISSNs, subjects, and frequency of updates to mention only a few items. A researcher can select the desired fields and format for the list, then view journal titles on screen or send the list as an e-mail attachment. Titles are clickable and will list the issues available. Other notable special features include a persistent URL link included with each citation and extensive Help features including tutorials for staff members and researchers. Statistics are Project COUNTER and ICOLC compliant and are readily available from the Administrative Module. A useful feature of the Search History page allows a researcher to easily set up an e-mail alert that will routinely search for new documents matching a search criteria. Given that this is a retrospective product this e-mail alert may not have much value, but if searchers have access to a combined search that includes current records it will prove useful.
No other online education-related products offer the depth of coverage of EIR. ERIC, a digital library of education-related resources that includes journal and non-journal literature, is available from 1966 to present. As a point of comparison the ERIC database published from 1966 to July 2004 contained 1.1 million bibliographic citations and includes other materials such as conference proceedings, project and program descriptions, curriculum guides, bibliographies, and more <http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/resources/html/about/about_e ric_resources.html>. ERIC and EIR are complementary, rather than competing products that overlap for a little over a decade.

Scores Composite: *** ¾
The maximum number of stars in each category is 5.

Content: ****1/2
Education Index Retrospective provides high quality and comprehensive citation indexing to articles and book reviews from 570-plus education and education related journals from 1929 to 1983.

Searchability: ***
A familiar interface offers an easy to use and robust search engine.

Contract Options: ****
Education Index Retrospective comes with a clear, reasonable, and straightforward contract. Special use provisions, user definitions, intellectual property ownership, and maintenance time are included with a long list of disclaimers.

Reviewed by: Theresa Liedtka, Dean of the Lupton Library at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Review from: Reference Reviews (UK) July 2006

The Education Index Retrospective is one of several "retrospective" products developed by the H.W. Wilson Company to serve as the electronic versions of longstanding and respected print indexes. The Education Retrospective covers the period 1929 to 1983, providing easy access to an important body of literature and a window to the past. Complementary products representing 1983 to current are also available from Wilson and at two different levels of content: Education Abstracts or Education Full Text.

The Wilson name is synonymous with extensive and precise indexing. According to a Wilson representative, indexers generally have Master's degrees in library science and either subject-specific Master's degrees or significant subject expertise. Electronic content is updated four times per week. Major software enhancements are scheduled bi annually, January and July.

Not unexpectedly, the Education Retrospective provides comprehensive coverage of a wide variety of educational topics, from the broad areas of higher and vocational education to subject-specific areas, such as mathematics and religious education. Unlike its closest US competitor (ERIC), the Education Retrospective focuses exclusively on journal literature. Nearly 600 English-language periodicals are indexed.

Updated subject headings in the Wilson thesaurus facilitate searching via contemporary terminology. Original (“historical”) subject headings also appear in the records and when different from the current heading, provide a unique perspective on the historical characterization of issues and a reminder about the evolution of social conversation (e.g. “Negroes” as the historical term for “black”). Hints from Wilson indexers: a subject heading containing the term “aspects” will often lead to articles presenting the pros and cons of a topic (e.g. abortion/religious aspects). The Thesaurus search option is visible from all WilsonWeb pages.

The WilsonWeb interface sports attractive hues, makes good use of white space for a crisp display, and is logically arranged. For institutions, with subscriptions to more than one WilsonWeb product, the database selection area appears prominently at the top. The Basic Search function displays the ubiquitous, uncomplicated Google-like box and supports Boolean operators. Phrases can contain stop words without being rejected. Use quotation marks for exact phrase searching. As with most Advanced Search screens, multiple search boxes are available….The SmartSearch feature looks for your terms in key fields, including the “use-for” field of the thesaurus (use-for is not searched in the Keyword option). The relevance ranking rules for SmartSearch provided in the Help screens should instill confidence in the use of this as a default feature.

Limit functions are conveniently placed on the main Advanced Search page instead of buried beneath another click. Limiting by Physical Description is seldom seen in article databases, but is possible in Wilson products due to the depth of indexing. This limit allows users to narrow searches to documents containing illustrations, tables, maps, diagrams, and more. The Journal Directory feature is of particular note and needs more advertisement: titles link to all issues and one can search for keywords within a publication title….

All too often, college students ignore print indexes to older literature because they are cumbersome to use and require a trip to the Library. Libraries can eliminate these as excuses and contribute to more effective research by subscribing to indexes such as the Education Index Retrospective. Wilson offers a variety of pricing options to cover both large and small budgets.

Reviewed by: Christine E. Ryan, Electronic Resources Librarian, University of
Tennessee at Chattanooga