CINAHL

摘要

The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature or CINAHL has a substantial history. Originating from a 1940s card index and first becoming available online in the 1980s, it has undergone many metamorphoses. In 2003 it was acquired by EBSCO Publishing, but CINAHL remained available through several commercial interfaces, including OVID and Proquest, until it was made exclusively available on the EBSCOhost Platform in 2006. Today, it is aimed at hospital libraries and healthcare programmes in academic institutions and is available in four versions, two with selected full text. "Plus" versions offer extra content such as Evidence-Based Care Sheets, Quick Lessons and cited reference functionality. Reviews of these features rate them as useful but purely supplementary. Users are well supported online and through other means. At the time of writing, EBSCO were conducting international WebEx training on searching CINAHL as well as the customisation options and individual account functionalities.