Revised to reflect changes in both DIALOG and ERIC, this second edition of a self-improvement manual for online searchers who wish to refine their skills presents three basic approaches to searching and provides illustrations from DIALOG's ERIC ONTAP database. The manual is divided into two parts: an 8-step model of the total search process which emphasizes the effects of the searcher's decisions on retrieval results and search objectives, and an introduction to DIALOG's ERIC ONTAP file followed by 16 self-improvement exercises based on search topics stored in the database; six of these exercises are on different topics from the original edition. The ONTAP file is a subset of the ERIC file consisting of RIE and CIJE citations for 1975, and 29 simple, moderate, and difficult search questions with answer sets. The database has been updated for use with the 1980 edition of the Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors. The appendices include 10 "search save" formulations of common search facets and a comprehensive guide to the ERIC database. (BBM)