This loose-leaf manual provides the detailed rules, guidelines, and examples to be used by the components of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) Network in acquiring and selecting documents and in processing them (i.e., cataloging, indexing, abstracting) for input to the ERIC computer system and subsequent announcement in "Resources in Education" (RIE) and "Current Index to Journals in Education" (CIJE). The 16 sections of the manual are entitled: (1) Introduction (an overview of the ERIC system); (2) Acquisitions (procedures used to acquire documents and journal articles); (3) Selection (evaluation criteria for choosing material for the database; (4) Handling and Shipping (Clearinghouse and ERIC Facility practices concerning the preparation and movement of documents between these two components); (5) Cataloging (preparation of the bibliographic data); (6) Abstracting/Annotating (guidelines for writing and editing abstracts and annotations); (7) Indexing (assignment of ERIC Descriptors and Identifiers); (8, Part 1) Vocabulary Development and Maintenance--Descriptors (procedures for maintaining the "Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors"; (8, Part 2) Vocabulary Development and Maintenance--Identifiers (procedures for maintaining the "Identifier Authority List"; (9) Data Entry (procedures for data preparation for RIE, CIJE, and full-text ERIC Digests); and (10) Database Changes (Post-Publication). Three appendixes are also included: (A) ERIC Clearinghouse Scope of Interest Guide (131-page detailed discussion of each Clearinghouse's scope, along with relevant indexing terms); (B) Document Preparation (for Filming); and (C) ERIC Indexing Handbook (Clearinghouse Indexing Practices) (120-page discussion of individual Clearinghouse indexing practices). A Glossary of Terms (with Acronym List) and an overall index to the complete manual (augmenting the individual section indexes) are also included. This manual will be of interest to all organizations that use the ERIC database. (CRW)