Thousands of books, films, CDs, software packages, and other media are available for classroom use. Most teachers end up choosing items that they have seen at conferences, titles recommended by a friend or colleague, materials displayed in the library, or products presented by a sales rep. To help teachers look more systematically for the materials they need, the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse (ENC) is collecting K-12 instructional materials and has recently placed an electronic catalog online. While it is in its fledgling stage with about 800 items available, the Educational Materials Catalog gives a glimpse of the ability of this tool to help teachers track down relevant materials.

As part of the Eisenhower National Program for Mathematics and Science Education, the ENC is located in Columbus, Ohio, and operates under contract with The Ohio State University. The project is establishing a national curriculum repository to support the online catalog. In addition, ENC is compiling databases of resource, evaluation, and support services, and plans to provide the means for teachers to interact electronically.

On the Internet, ENC has established a gopher site that will allow a visit. If you have telnet access to the Internet, you can reach ENC's gopher site by telneting to enc.org and entering the login "gopher." No password is needed, just hit return. If you have gopher software, the Internet address for ENC's gopher site is also enc.org. If you have a modem but are not connected to the Internet, dial 1-800-362-4448. Set your communications software to VT100 terminal emulation. Terminal parameters should also be set to No parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, and full duplex. When the ENC welcome screen appears, chose C to connect to ENC online services and login as guest.

• General-Information about ENC.
  
  
• Guides-Information about Internet resources that may be useful to teachers under the headings: education, general, government information, and sciences.
  
  
• ENC Catalog of Curriculum Resources
  
  
• Vocabulary-Terminology that ENC is using for catalog development.
  
  
• Federal Programs-The Guidebook to Excellence, a resource of federal programs committed to reform in mathematics and science education.
  
  
• OERI-Information from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.
  
  
• Other Education Related Gophers-Includes gophers at several regional consortia.
  

For more information concerning the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse, call the SCIMAST toll-free number, 1-800-201-7435.