CINAHL Users – Make the Transition to EBSCO

As of January 2009, CINAHL, the premier nursing and allied health bibliographic database, will be available only through the EBSCOhost search interface. Though the look and “feel” of the EBSCOhost interface is different from that of CINAHL’s current interface, Ovid, users will continue to have access to CINAHL’s familiar search tools. Below is a table listing the names (and functions) of selected search tools available in Ovid CINAHL, and their equivalents in EBSCOhost CINAHL.

To access CINAHL EBSCOhost, go to the HSLS home page. Type “CINAHL” into the search.HSLS text box and click on the Search button. At the top of your search results, find the HSLS Electronic Resources box – it will contain a link that takes you to EBSCOhost CINAHL.

Ovid CINAHL	Function	EBSCOhost CINAHL
Map term to subject heading	Find a CINAHL subject heading	Suggest subject terms
Explode	Expands a subject heading search to include more specific related subject headings	Explode
Focus	Limits search to records where the subject heading is a major focus of the article	Major concept
Scope	A brief definition of a subject heading	Scope
Subheadings	Limits search to records where the subject heading includes a chosen qualifier	Qualify subheadings
Limits	Limit results by publication date, language, etc.	Revise/Refine search
Search History	Displays all completed searches	Search History/Alerts
Results Manager	Print, email, save or export search results	Add to Folder
Saved Searches, Auto-alert (using Ovid account)	Save searches online for use at a later time	Saved Searches, Search Alerts, Journal Alerts (using ESCBOhost account)

If you would like additional tips on using CINAHL EBSCOhost, consider attending our new class “Transitioning to EBSCO CINAHL”.

~ Mary Lou Klem