This paper reviews the services provided by the ERIC system and suggests ways to broaden its scope through coordination with other existing education databases. The first of four major sections chronicles the evolution of ERIC and explains why it has not been able to exercise true bibliographic control over the literature of education. The second section identifies and discusses four stages at which efforts could be made to coordinate the various education information databases: (1) coverage, acquisition, and selection; (2) processing; (3) finding the right database to search; and (4) retrieval. Examples of possible applications are included. The third section introduces and discusses the concept of a "federation" of education databases which would ensure that all domestic educational resources would be available to users through clearly delineated channels. It is suggested that ERIC could serve as a focus of such an organization. The concluding statement reiterates the ERIC Facility's belief that possibilities exist at many levels for helping to coordinate the activities of the various education information databases, and suggests that they should be divided into primary education databases, where the focus of the database is education, and secondary education databases, where the focus is elsewhere, e.g., sociology, but that contain some education-related material. Four attachments to the paper provide a comprehensive list of types of printed and nonprint educational resources; an organizational chart showing ERIC as the focus of a national educational information system providing access to educational resources of all types; tables showing primary and secondary education databases, their printed form, source, coverage, online vendor, and online designation; and a summary of the paper for verbal presentation. (SD)