National Library Week is fast approaching, a week dedicated to promoting and celebrating libraries and the services they provide. With this in mind this week's KGI blog hones in on one of the many services provided by the State Library of Kansas to government officials and employees as well as the people of Kansas, the online ATLAS Catalog.
ATLAS (The Associated Topeka Libraries Automated System) is a consortium catalog containing resources of the State Library, the Kansas Historical Society, the Kansas Supreme Court Law Library and various libraries at Washburn University.
The State Library has over 200,000 records in the catalog. Each record points the seeker to an item, book, magazine, annual, magazine article, web page, etc. that will hopefully be of help to them in their quest for information.
You can access ATLAS using two different screens. The first provides a googled approach to locating resources. The Second is a more traditional "Author, Title, Subject, Keyword" set up.
ATLAS (google like search)http://topekalibraries.info/ATLAS (traditional search)http://topekalibraries.info/searchSearching can be limited to one library by clicking on the different library names listed on the right menu. If you wish to broaden your search to include all libraries again just click on the link at the bottom that says "All ATLAS Libraries."
Each library in ATLAS has its own page providing links to information and resources that library can offer you. The State Library of Kansas ATLAS page is
http://topekalibraries.info/search~S4Among the links within the State Library's ATLAS page are:
Keep in mind that the library catalog of the 21st century is not your grandparent's card catalog of the 1950s! The ATLAS catalog allows you to limit and expand a search limiting words and terms within titles, authors and subjects. You can also limit searches by year of issuance or the type of material you're seeking.
Here's a short selection of some State Library collections whose holdings (complete or partial) can be found within ATLAS:
Illustriana Kansas (1933)(A biographical work. All the biographies have been cataloged and available from the State Library via interlibrary loan)
A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans (1918)(About 2500 of the biographies of this print and online resource have been cataloged)
Kansas Attorney General Opinions(About 400 AG opinion records are found in ALTLAS linking reserachers to the online collection held by Washburn University School of Law.
Kansas Governors' Executive Orders(Extending back to Gov. Robert Bennett these records provide links to online copies of the Orders)
The Kansas Historical QuarterlyKansas HistoryKansas!(Over 1,100 records for articles in publications published by the Kansas Historical Society)
Kansas Wildlife and Parks(The State Library has cataloged articles out of this magazine going back to 1991)
KSPACe(Online Kansas state government publications. View some KSPACe collection records in ATLAS
here)
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