What is a Permalink? and why does it matter?

What is a permalink? And why does it matter?

People often ask me how to get a permalink and/or citations for documents in Nursing Reference Center.    This question comes up regularly when people want to :

• share NRC documents or articles
• cite them in policies / procedures
• cite them in papers or
• web-based training
• or other venues
• or just want to revisit them later

Unfortunately, people soon discover the url harvested from the browser location box times out and leads to an error message after a few short hours.  This brief tutorial on getting permalinks and citations in NRC and Ebsco should simplify the process, and save you time and frustration.

Have you ever tried to save a link to an article from one of the Library subscription databases only to find out it wouldn't work after some time had passed? 

Chances are you just copied the URL from your web browser and you weren't using a permalink.

In order to create a lasting link to an article,  use a permalink. 

Permalinks are also called 

• persistent links or URLs
• permanent links
• stable URLs
• DOIs (digital object identifiers). 

If a permanent link is not part of the record, you may need to look for a link to it. From CINAHL, NRC Plus, or other EBSCOhost databases, the link to access the permalink is available after clicking on the article title from the search results to display the Detailed Record: