A: The Information Institute of Syracuse (IIS) is a long standing research center in the areas of education, technology and librarianship. It has been the source and host for a number of highly visible and widely successful digital education information services. The IIS created The Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education), The Virtual Reference Desk (VRD), AskERIC and the Educator's Reference Desk. All projects share the same goal: to improve student learning by providing educators, policy makers and parents with quality information to improve teaching and the educational environment. IIS projects bring together universities, government agencies and private enterprises to promote easy access to high quality educational information to a diverse user population.

The Information Institute's ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology was a leader in developing and implementing new technologies for educators for more than 30 years, and has led to innovative new projects such as GEM and VRD. In the past decade, Internet technology has opened creative and exciting new opportunities for providing information to the education community. The IIS was among the first organizations to recognize and capitalize on the power of the Internet.

This expanding interest in question and answer services resulted in an Internet-wide effort to link all K-12 oriented question and answer and "Ask-A" services through the Virtual Reference Desk project. Every IIS-based question and answer service received hundreds of thank-you messages from teachers and parents stating how valuable the services are in helping them to help students learn.

On the resource side, the Information Institute adopted a user-based approach when developing its Internet sites. That is, rather than a "Field of Dreams model" (i.e., "build it and they will come"), the IIS actively sought out the needs of teachers, students, parents, and others interested in education and built collections to meet those needs. For example, the IIS found that teachers were most interested in quality lesson and unit plans. This finding resulted in the AskERIC lesson plan collection (including materials from Newton's Apple, Discovery Channel, and CNN Newsroom) -the most widely used part of a very popular AskERIC Web site. Later, this collection expanded into a more comprehensive effort to provide access to thousands of high quality lesson and unit plans as well as other educational material through the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) project. As with the question and answer services, teacher, administrator, and parent reactions to these resources continually point to their direct value in designing educational environments and experiences that improve student learning.

The Institute also provides infrastructure and support services to developing research projects. These services include secretarial support, travel management, phone support, and general office functions.

In short, the Information Institute of Syracuse fulfills an ambitious agenda of projects-funded by a range of public and private organizations-to improve learning and teaching in the U.S. and throughout the world.

This extensive expertise and access to high-level education research is made available to IIS partners.

Partner List

The Information Institute of Syracuse has participated in, and led innovative research and development projects and consortia with many partners, including:

24/7
Association for Science Education
Australian Education Office
Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN)
CASE Center
Center for Natural Language Processing (CNLP)
Colorado Department of Education
Disney.com
Education Network Australia (EdNA)
Eisenhower National Clearinghouse (math and science education)
Environmental Protection Agency
Federal Aviation Administration
Florida State University
George Lucas Education al Foundation
Internet Public Library
Library of Congress
LSSI
McREL
NASA
National Library of Canada
National Museum of American Art (Smithsonian)
NPAC (Northeast Parallel Architecture Center)
OCLC
PLS (Personal Librarian Software)
School of Education, Syracuse University
School of Information Studies, Syracuse University
SUN Systems
University of Arizona
University of Washington at Seattle
U.S. Department of Education

A: Welcome to the Information Institute of Syracuse. For over a quarter century this institute has lead the way in education information. It has sought to improve teaching and learning in all contexts by providing high-quality information and leadership in information dissemination.

It began with Dr. Don Ely and his innovative work in education technology. Don merged two ERIC components on education technology and library science into a single "flagship" clearinghouse. Don saw the future of technology in education not as a solution, but as a tool for reform and improved performance. Don saw the impact of the clearinghouse beyond traditional public education and into training and lifelong learning. We're proud that Don, as founding director and special advisor to the executive director, still provides his considerable talents to the Institute and its mission.

Michael Eisenberg was the true father of the Information Institute. Through his leadership he expanded the ERIC Clearinghouse (that he renamed to the Clearinghouse on Information & Technology) into the Information Institute of Syracuse. He diversified its mission and projects with research for AT&T, Microsoft, and others. Mike's devotion to information literacy and school libraries helped the Institute grow from a staff of six to nearly 25 full time staff in his 8 years. Mike's tenure saw the advent of the wide-scale Internet, and the birth of the World Wide Web.

I am the third director of the Institute. With Mike I helped create the bedrock projects of the IIS: AskERIC, GEM and VRD. I am proud to bring my emphasis on education information and human expertise in information systems. I am also proud of our amazing staff of professionals, affiliated researchers, graduate assistants and students. I look forward to new challenges as the Internet transforms education information and society itself.

Our challenges ahead include the establishment of a foundation for a seamless education information network. This will be a network of metadata, human intermediation, services and new applications. The Institute continues to promote commercial, academic and government cooperation, and seeks to innovate how educators, researchers and the public get their information for teaching and learning. The Institute will continue to reinvent itself: building on its illustrious roots while constantly looking ahead.

Fortunately, I am not alone in this challenge. The staff and students of the Institute are the most hard-working brilliant people I have ever had the fortune to know. Project staff, support staff, associated researchers and students alike constantly prove that there are no boundaries. Every day they expand the reach and impact of Institute projects and Institute partners. In partnership with Syracuse University's School of Information Studies the Institute continues to explore education information in all its forms and media.

I invite you to browse around the Institute. Use the services, read about the projects. If you have any questions, we are always here to help.

R. David Lankes, Ph.D.
Executive Director

A: Information Institute of Syracuse
205 Hinds Hall
Syracuse, NY 13244-5290

phone: (315) 443-3640
fax: (315) 443-5448
email: iis@iis.syr.edu
URL: http://iis.syr.edu