EbscoHost 2.0 Released

The next generation EBSCOhost 2.0 user interface was released today, July 16. You may experience a very slow response time and also receive the dreaded “page cannot be displayed.” Obviously, EBSCOhost 2.0 wasn’t quite ready to be released! You will find that most of the changes are cosmetic as the search interface remains clunky and not very user-friendly. Graduate Nursing students who use Cinahl will have a bit of a learning curve because of the rearrangement of its features. Three things I like about 2.0 are:

· the results are now displayed in the middle of the main screen just below the search statements.

· you can mouse over the magnifying glass icon to preview the citation and abstract

· the results display is much cleaner and easier to read

Two sidebars on either side of the results list give options to narrow your search. The left sidebar suggests additional terms to narrow your search, or you can select other limiters such as age groups or sex. The right sidebar allows you to limit to Research or Peer Reviewed articles, and this is where you can display the full list of limiters. The “folder has items” link will also be found in this sidebar. The sidebars can also be hidden (or expanded) by clicking on the small arrow in the frame border allowing a full screen display of your results. On the downside, do remember to clear your search box when doing a new search or combining search sets. The previous search terms are not cleared and you could end up with some confusing results.

For a help sheet that outlines the new features click here.