The North Carolina Nursing History (NCNH) website, a comprehensive, award-winning, and rich educational resource, was developed by nursing and library faculty and staff at Appalachian State University and is being used by nursing faculty and students. Most of today's students prefer to learn with online tools. The advantages of using a digital nursing history website include access to an abundance and diversity of historical content in a student-friendly format.

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Cataloging serials in special collections proves to be both a challenge and a delight. Rare, ephemeral, or older serials may contain less descriptive information than is normally found in major current periodicals, making it difficult to record such descriptive information as frequency/regularity of publication and volume designation. But the true challenges in cataloging these materials are often due to their limited and sporadic acquisition, which causes problems in describing the serials and recording holdings, resulting in more time and higher cost per issue cataloged.

Recognizing the importance of nursing history, an interdisciplinary team at Appalachian State University created a North Carolina Nursing History Web site (http://nursinghistory.appstate.edu/). The Web site can be used for teaching undergraduate and graduate nursing and other health professions students. One learning activity using the Web site involved the use of the historical timeline. In small groups, students compared historical and political events affecting nursing by decades at the local, state, and national levels. Students identified events that shaped nursing and hypothesized about future events. In a second activity, students viewed the A Century of Caring video and in group format discussed issues related to nursing and historical racial, cultural, and ethnic disparities within the profession. There is a need for other states to digitally archive their own nursing history for the profession and for educational opportunities.