THE "THESAURUS OF ERIC DESCRIPTORS (INTERIM)" SUPERSEDES, AND REPRESENTS A REFINEMENT OF, THE "THESAURUS OF ERIC DESCRIPTORS." THE INTERIM ISSUE IS A PRELIMINARY ERIC SYSTEM TOOL AND IS NOT TO BE CONSIDERED A COMPLETE REPRESENTATION OF THE FINAL PRODUCT. THIS REFINEMENT IS THE RESULT OF TWO MAJOR PROJECTS--(1) THE INCORPORATION OF SUGGESTIONS RECEIVED FROM A FIELD EVALUATION AND (2) THE ADAPTATION OF THE PANEL ON EDUCATIONAL TERMINOLOGY (PET) "RULES FOR THESAURUS PREPARATION" PUBLISHED IN OCTOBER 1966. APPLICATION OF THE PET RULES REQUIRED A LARGE NUMBER OF CHANGES IN THE THESAURUS, FOR EXAMPLE, THE APPLICATION OF THE SINGULAR-PLURAL NOUN FORM FOR DESCRIPTORS. SAMPLE THESAURUS ENTRIES ARE INCLUDED FOR DESCRIPTORS, SYNONYMS OR NEAR SYNONYMS, PARENTHETICALLY QUALIFIED TERMS, DESCRIPTORS WITH SCOPE NOTES, AND DESCRIPTOR DISPLAY CROSS-REFERENCES. (TC)