About ATLAS
ATLAS Online is here!
Thanks to a grant from the American Theological Library Association and the Lilly Foundation, ANTS alumni/ae are able to have free access to ATLAS, the full-text article database of ATLA.
In the busyness of parish and ministry life, continuing with scholarly pursuits usually takes the backseat to more urgent matters. Now you have a fast and convenient to keep up with current scholarship. Here you can find the research on scripture passages for your next sermon series, discover how others have organized worship services to nursing homes, or wrestle with the ethical issues surrounding designer gene therapy.
This marvelous tool allows you to search for journal articles by subject, author, title and even Scripture passages. There is a browse list of the journals that are included so you can browse the table of contents and even entire back issues of Christian Century, Christianity Today or Theology Today if you wish.
(Note that some publishers do not permit their latest issues to enter the online database until one or more years have elapsed so they don't lose their subscriber base.)
Here are some quick examples of how ATLAS can be used:
1. For your sermon based on Matthew 5:43-47, go to the ATLAS Search Page under Scripture index, enter Matthew 5 (Be patient, it may take several seconds to collect citations), up will pop at least 70 citations. You can click on any one and see the full text of the article. Note: Some journals are inconsistent in how Scripture passages are indexed so do the search again in the Subject index to see if you get more or different items.
2. You’d like to keep up with Professor Mark Heim's latest scholarship. Type Mark Heim in the author line and get a list of articles he has written and reviews of his books (63 citations as of January 11, 2006). Or see what others say about him by typing Mark Heim in the subject line.
3. Your youth group is heading for Guatemala this summer and you'd like to read current articles about the state of Christianity in that country. Type Guatemala on the subject line and limit your search by year (try 2000-2006) and get a host of articles.
4. You are looking for a poem on Easter questions by J. Barrie Shepherd that you remember reading in Christian Century in the last few years. Type Barrie Shepherd in the author line and see what comes up (Christian Century poems are indexed!) Or, try Journal Browse, select Christian Century, and then select the last issue of each year to check the annual index.
You can access the ATLAS database by logging in at the Alumni/ae Center. If you haven’t registered, do so first to get authorization. Then select the button for ATLAS access. As a part of the grant for ATLAS, we will need to analyze and evaluate how the database is used and how useful it is to our alums. We will be taking some surveys in a few months so, please, try out the database, use it often, and be ready to let us know how you like it.
Sharon Taylor
Director of the Franklin Trask Library