Frequently Asked Questions
What is the AHEC Digital Library?
The North Carolina AHEC Digital Library (ADL) is an online service of the North Carolina AHEC Program serving North Carolina healthcare professionals with a focus on clinical care and continuing education. The ADL provides access to current medical literature and other quality health information resources through electronic full-text journals, books and databases.
To learn more about the ADL, please take our online tour (note flash movie)
What does ADL stand for?
ADL stands for AHEC Digital Library. Originally called NC ThincNet, the name evolved to reflect its part with the AHEC family.
What resources are included in the ADL?
In general the ADL contains databases for searching for articles, full text journals, and books. There are also evaluated high quality free web sites for specific health specialties or health topics.
Specific resources are unique for each individual depending on their institutional and/or individual affiliations. For a list of the specific resources included in your ADL account, please contact your local AHEC or hospital librarian or send an email to ADL-Questions@listserv.unc.edu
How can I get an ADL membership?
There are several different membership categories, please contact your local AHEC or hospital librarian, or send an email to ADL-Questions@listserv.unc.edu to find the category that best meets your needs.
Please consult our Membership Information Page for a further explanation of our individual membership option.
What do I do if I have forgotten my username and/or password?
If you have forgotten either your username and/or password, go the ADL, and click on the Forgot Your Username or Password link.(found at the bottom of the login box)
To use the reset form you will need to know the email address that is attached to your account. For a password reset you will need either your username or your First Name and Last Name. You will be asked to complete either the username or first name and Last name, and the email address. Once you have completed the form, the reset email address will be sent to you.
If you have forgotten your username, please supply the First Name, Last Name and the email address attached to your account and this information will be emailed to you
If you don't know the username, or first name and last name plus email address associated with your account. You can send an email to ADL-Questions@listserv.unc.edu
I'm trying to access my account and get an error message stating that my account in inactive, what should I do?
You can contact your local AHEC or hospital librarian or send an email to ADL-Questions@listserv.unc.edu
I have tried logging into the ADL and get an error message saying that my account can't be found, what should I do?
See answer above, for inactivate account
How do I know who is my local AHEC or hospital librarian and how can I contact her?
If you are logged into the ADL, you can go to one of the links for Contacting Your Librarian. You can either complete that form and submit it, or you can use the phone number found on that form and call your local library.
If you aren't logged into the ADL, you can still use the Contact Your Librarian form, it will just come to ADL Staff. You can also click on the Libraries button from the main page of the ADL and this will take you to a list of the local AHEC library websites where you should be able to find the contact information for that AHEC library.
How can I find full text articles in the ADL?
The ADL offers several databases you can use in searching for articles, these can be found on the databases page within the ADL. The 2 most frequently used databases for article searching are CINAHL (for Nursing & Allied Health Literature) and Medline (for searching the Medial literture). Your local librarian is an excellent resource for help in locating information.
If you know which journal you'd like to use, please visit the journals page where you will find an alphabetic list of all journals associated with your account.
We also offer an Article Search option. This can be accessed from the top of most pags within the ADL. It is also linked through the Clinical Resources section. This article search will search across most of the databases, journal, and book collections located within the ADL.
Where can I find documentation and instructions on the 'Article Search' function?
The following link provides tips on how to use the 'Article Search' feature within the ADL:
I've heard discussions about collaborative communities, what are collaborative communities and how can I request one?
Please see our informational flyer for additional information about collaborative communities