Rules and guidelines are provided for ERIC catalogers and editors engaged in capturing bibliographic data for the documents and journal articles entered into the ERIC database. A general discussion of the principles of ERIC cataloging, definitions used, use of mandatory vs. optional data elements, etc. is provided in the Introduction. The body part of the section is organized alphabetically by the keyword of 24 data elements: Abstract/Annotation; ERIC Accession Number; Audience; Author; Availability (Other Than EDRS); Clearinghouse Accession Number; Contract/Grant Number; Descriptors; Geographic Source; Government Status; Identifiers; Institution; Issue (of Abstract Journal); Journal Citation; Language; Level of Availability (at EDRS); Note; Pagination; Publication Date; EDRS Price Code; Publication Type; Report Number; Sponsoring Agency; and Title. Within each data element the material is organized by: (1) Profile--displaying the name of the element, the keyword used in entering the data element, files ("Resources in Education" and "Current Index to Journals in Education") in which the data element appears, mandatory/optional status, ERIC component supplying the data, character set (alphabetic, numeric, and special used), subfields, field length, and field ID number on the ERIC magnetic tape); (2) Typical Entry; (3) Text--including rules and guidelines, relationship to other fields, any authority lists; (4) Summary of Significant Rules; and (5) Examples. Several of the data elements have associated authority lists (country names, language names, publication types, etc.). Three attachments are included: (1) Obsolete/Discontinued Fields (a 3-page description); (2) Cataloging Specific Types of Documents; and (3) CENDI/COSATI Guidelines for "Organization Names" (extracted from its "Guidelines for Descriptive Cataloging of Reports"). (CRW)