Resources

Planning to scrape a website or database? Train an AI tool? Some Library resources are available for text data mining or AI research. Before you scrape and before you train, there are steps you need to take! Violating license agreements can result in the entire campus losing access to critical research resources and potentially expose you and the University to legal liability.

If you would like to carry out this type of project, first consult the general terms and conditions that you need to comply with for all Library electronic resources (journal articles, books, databases, and more) by reviewing the license agreement found at the CDL Redacted License Agreements page.

Second, if you also intend to use any Library electronic resources with AI tools or for text and data mining research, check what’s allowed by viewing our Text Mining and AI Research in Library Resources guide. If you don’t see your resource or database listed, please e-mail library@ucmerced.edu and we’ll be glad to assist you.

Please see the FAQs in our TDM & AI Research guide for more information.

Do you need to make supplemental course materials available to your students?

Course resources is a service the Library offers to make course-related materials available to your students. Print materials can be made available at the Library for a 2-hour loan period upon request. 

Would you like to make video materials available to your students?

The Library offers digitation services for AV materials, including eligible DVDs. Video content digitized by the Library is made available in CatCourses through the Kaltura Canvas tool. 

Requests can be submitted at any time and will be processed in the order they are received. For more information and to submit a request, see our Course Resources guide. 

Due to ongoing budget cuts, the UC Merced Library will be canceling our subscription to BrowZine, and its browser extension, LibKey Nomad, effective July 1, 2025.

UC Merced began subscribing to BrowZine in 2021. BrowZine allows users to create lists of articles to read and to track new material in selected journals through app notifications. It also integrates with RefWorks, EndNote, and Mendeley.

Our decision to cancel was not taken lightly; the current budget situation has necessitated cuts to resources that have been valuable to Library users.

Please reach out to us with any questions at library@ucmerced.edu. 

4/28/25 Edit: This is an evolving situation. We learned today in an email from Matthew Soldner the Acting Director of IES, that the "U.S. Department of Education, on behalf of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), has renewed its contract with AEM Corporation to continue the work of ERIC." When more details are known, we'll post a new news story. In the meantime, other updates below have been given a date in bold.

In March 2025, the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) Help Desk made the following announcement to journal publishers, which was subsequently forwarded to institutions subscribing to the ERIC database (available from EBSCO and linked in the University Library’s A-Z Databases list. ERIC is also available from ProQuest and at eric.ed.gov):

“The Department of Education is working with the Department of Government Efficiency to ‘reduce overall Federal spending’ and ’reallocate spending to promote efficiency’ (EO 14222). As a result, the number of records added to the ERIC collection will be significantly reduced going forward. The number of actively cataloged sources will be reduced by approximately 45% starting April 24, 2025. Subject matter was not considered during the process to identify which sources would be made inactive.  Please note that all records currently in ERIC will remain available.” 

This is a developing situation, and UC Merced Library does not yet know the full extent of the list of journal titles no longer included in ERIC. Education Source, a different database from EBSCO, includes many journal titles in ERIC; however, it’s not known at this time if these journal titles are among those being removed from ERIC. Title Lists for this database can be viewed on EBSCO's website and a librarian can help you determine where journals are indexed.  

Both ERIC and Education Source are crucial resources for anyone researching issues in Education, Psychology, Sociology, Public Health, and other social science disciplines. The impact on researchers will be significant.  

Here’s what we know: 

• Journal availability in ERIC will be reduced from approximately 1,200 to 700 titles by April 25, 2025.  
• Journals cut from ERIC will not have new content added to those databases.  
• Records currently in ERIC will remain searchable, but full-text access may be suspended. 
• Currently grassroots efforts have identified some of the journals being removed from ERIC's indexing and journal editors can submit their journal for inclusion on this list.  
• 4/28/25: An archived version of ERIC, called ERICA, has been made available through efforts of the Data Rescue Project. See our "Looking for U.S. Federal Data?" online guide for a link and details.

We do not currently know: 

• Whether the removal of journal titles from ERIC will be permanent. 
• What criteria is being employed to remove those titles. 
• If the full text of articles will be removed from ERIC on the ProQuest platform too.
• Whether the 45% cuts to ERIC will be deeper. A 4/21/25 article from The Hechinger Report suggests the reduced budget proposal has not yet been approved.

UC Merced Library is committed to supplying researchers, faculty, and students with the most up-to-date information possible. If we learn more about the journal titles removed from ERIC, we will update this press release.  

Please contact us at library@ucmerced.edu with any questions or to request assistance.