ATLAS Help

Contents

Introduction

ATLA Serials (ATLAS®) is an online collection of major religion and theology journals selected by leading religion scholars and theologians. ATLAS is owned and managed by the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) and received initial funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.  ATLAS users can read articles or research the history of a topic from as early as 1924 to the present. Users may search ATLA citations or full-text PDFs, or browse ATLASerials to navigate through images of each page of a journal issue.


ATLAS Overview:

Title list:

On ATLA web site

Coverage areas:

Bible, archaeology, & antiquities; human culture & society; church history, mission, & ecumenism; pastoral ministry; world religions & religious studies; theology, philosophy, & ethics

Subscription term:

Annual: January -December

Updates:

Quarterly: February, May, August, and November

 

ABOUT ATLAS FORMATS

ATLAS provides index citations describing the article, review and other matter content of journal issues.  ATLA's citations provide bibliographic specifics such as author, title and journal citation, as well as subject descriptors and scripture references created by experts in the field of religion and theology.  Citation content is searchable through the Citation Search and is linked to page images and PDFs as relevant.

ATLAS also contains GIF images of each page within a journal issue.  These images replicate the original version of each journal issue page, including any images, advertisements, charts, unique character sets, and other items that appeared on the original page. The page images are available for browsing and printing.

In addition, ATLAS contains PDFs.  A small number of PDFs are generated directly from publisher submitted electronic files or are image only PDFs.  The majority of PDFs within ATLAS contain two layers:  images of the pages and hidden text created using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.  ATLAS PDFs display the image of the pages rather than the OCRed text.  The OCRed text is not always 100% accurate to the original page's content and may have errors within it's text due to difficulties the OCR software may have in recognizing hieroglyphic languages, formatting complexities, typographic variances, word order, and other anomalies.  OCR quality generally ranges between 90% to 99% on individual pages with many documents having overall OCR accuracy rates between 97 to 99.9% accurate.  Presenting images as the visible layer allows for PDF printing and viewing that accurately represents the original page of the journal.  Though the quality of the OCRed text is not always 100% accurate, ATLA has made it available to access in the PDF via selecting and searching in Acrobat Reader using Reader's select text tool and find search boxes.  The OCRed text may also be used by assistive technologies as well as the read out loud option using Adobe Reader.  The OCRed text has also been extracted from the PDFs and is available for searching in combination via ATLAS' Full-Text Search.  The OCRed text can, thus, be searched in combination with ATLA citations to retrieve specific PDF files. 

ATLA also creates a faithful high resolution TIFF image of each page within a journal issue.  These archival level images are used for digital preservation of the journal content and are not present within ATLA's ATLAS application. 

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Copyright & License

The following copyright statement appears at the end of each PDF:

As an ATLAS user, you may print, download, or send articles for individual use according to fair use as defined by U.S. and international copyright law and as otherwise authorized under your respective ATLAS Subscriber Agreement.

No content may be copied or emailed to multiple sites or publicly posted without the copyright holder(s)' express written permission. Any use, decompiling, reproduction, or distribution of this journal in excess of fair use provisions may be a violation of copyright law.

This journal is made available to you through the ATLAS collection with permission from the copyright holder(s). The copyright holder for an entire issue of a journal typically is the journal owner, who also may own the copyright in each article. However, for certain articles, the author of the article may maintain the copyright in the article. Please contact the copyright holder(s) to request permission to use an article or specific work for any use not covered by the fair use provisions of the copyright laws or covered by your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement. For information regarding the copyright holder(s), please refer to the copyright information in the journal, if available, or contact ATLA to request contact information for the copyright holder(s).

About ATLAS:

The ATLA Serials (ATLAS®) collection contains electronic versions of previously published religion and theology journals reproduced with permission and ATLA- produced index citations. The ATLAS collection is owned and managed by the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) and received initial funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.

The design and final form of each electronic document is the property of the American Theological Library Association.

 

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Recommended Browsers & Settings

BROWSER VERSIONS SUPPORTED

ATLAS has been designed to work with recent versions of either Microsoft Internet Explorer (versions 5 and greater), Netscape Navigator (version 6.2 and greater), or Mozilla Firefox (1.7 or greater) for Windows operating systems. ATLA supports Netscape Navigator (version 6.2 and greater), Mozilla 1.7 and Firefox 1.0 browsers for Macintosh OS X computers. The appearance of ATLAS with other earlier versions of these browsers or with other browsers may not be optimal.

 

Note for AOL users:

At present ATLA does not support the use of AOL browsers with ATLAS.   AOL Internet account users may access ATLAS if they login to their AOL account, minimize the dial-up box, and instead of opening up the AOL browser, use another supported browser such as Internet Explorer, Netscape or Firefox to access ATLAS. If you do not have another browser, you may freely download them from Microsoft, Netscape or Mozilla's web sites.

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BROWSER COOKIE/SECURITY SETTINGS

Browsers must have cookies enabled to use the ATLAS site.

Software that might block or control cookies, such as anti-virus, pop-up blockers or personal firewall software, may also need to be configured to allow use of cookies on the ATLAS site.

OPENING ADOBE PDF FILES

Although ATLAS PDFs may be opened with Adobe Reader version 5, the legibility of the PDFs on screen is improved with versions 6 and greater.  ATLA recommends using Adobe Reader version 6 or greater to view and open the PDFs in ATLAS (If you are using Mozilla Firefox as your browser, ATLA recommends using Adobe Reader 7 or greater for that browser).  Most browsers come with Adobe Reader or the Adobe Reader plug-in installed.  If you need a copy of Reader or require , you may download it for free from the Adobe Systems Inc. Adobe Reader web page.  

   

To troubleshoot issues with Adobe Reader opening PDF files on your operating system or with a web browser, please visit the Adobe Reader Support Center.

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BOOKMARKING ATLAS

ATLA Serials domain name is: search.atlaonline.com.  If you would like to bookmark the ATLAS website in your browser, please use http://search.atlaonline.com.  

Note:  IP authenticated customers should use the link form or bookmark form http://search.atlaonline.com and not the form http://search.atlaonline.com/login.html as the IP will only be checked for authentication if they are coming from the http://search.atlaonline.com form of the URL.  

CONNECTION SPEED RECOMMENDED

Recommended Internet connection speed for using ATLAS is 56 kbps or greater.

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BROWSER IMAGE RE-SIZING

Some browsers automatically resize any page images included in a website's display to fit the height of your screen. Since ATLAS uses GIF images to display journal article and book review pages, please be aware that images may appear at a size they were not intended to be viewed at. Your browser's options may allow for the automatic-resizing option to be disabled while viewing and searching ATLAS images.  Additionally, many browsers allow users to click on an image and choose an option to view the image at its original size.

To zoom in or change the size of a PDF, use your Acrobat Reader's Zoom In and Zoom Out options.

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Display

DISPLAY OF IMAGES/ JOURNAL BROWSE

Users may select the “Browse Journals” option from the ATLAS Main Menu.  The Browse option allows users to choose which journal, volume, and issue they wish to navigate from available issues by clicking on their preferred choice.  On the issue browse page, users may choose to browse page images of a journal issue  or choose to see the citations for that issue.  If users choose to browse the page images, they can navigate through the GIF page images of that issue.  If users choose to see the citations, the article and review citations for that journal issue will be displayed as a brief results list which will include links from the citations to the full citation, browsing pages images starting at a specific page, and may include a link to the associated PDF file.

 

 

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QUICK JOURNAL NAVIGATION REFERENCE

Navigating through a journal issue may be accomplished in two ways. The first way to browse through a journal is to use the arrow buttons located in the Page Navigation section of the purple Navigation Bar. This Navigation Bar is located on the left-hand side of your computer screen. The second option, which can be used if you are using the browser Microsoft Internet Explorer, is to use 'hot keys.' Hot keys are accessed by simultaneously holding down the Alt key and the hot key letter on your keyboard. For issue navigation these hot keys are:

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Searching 

SEARCH INTERFACE INTRODUCTION

The ATLAS Search interface is comprised of two components, the Citation Search (located in the top portion of the search interface) and the "Search Within Article/Review Texts" Full-Text search  (located in the bottom portion of the search interface). Inputting search criteria into the Citation Search portion of the screen will generate a search that retrieves ATLA article, review, other matter or serial index records that contain the term searched. Searching within the Full-text Search component will search input terms against the complete full-text of articles, reviews or other journal matter that are available within ATLAS as full-text. It is possible to search each component separately, or to link both components of the search interface to retrieve articles or reviews that have specific ATLA index record terms and specific terms within their full-text.

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CITATION SEARCH  – DETAILED FIELD DESCRIPTIONS

Keyword

Use this field to retrieve an article or review with a particular word or phrase any where within the full citation with the exception of language, scripture passage, year or record type. Language, scripture passage, year or record type terms should be searched in other fields or as limiters.  

Author/Editor

Use this field to retrieve an article or review by a particular author, editor, translator, or reviewer. Both individual personal names and collective corporate names are included in this Search Field.  Personal names are usually indexed in the inverted form: last name, first name middle name (or middle initial).  

Title

Use this field to find a particular word or phrase within article, book, review, series or uniform titles in a citation. 

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Subjects

Use this field to retrieve an article that has been assigned a particular ATLA subject heading.  Scripture subject headings are included under the heading  “Bible”. Personal name subject headings are included, as well as fictional and mythical characters.

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Scripture Passages

Use this field to retrieve an article that makes reference to a particular scripture passage. Most references indexed in this field are canonical; there are very few apocryphal references

It is possible to construct a search that specifies a scriptural book, chapter, and/or range of verses. Multiple Biblical books require that the number of the book being searched be spelled out prior to the name of the book.

Example: Genesis 1: 1-20
Result: Returns records discussing the first chapter of the book Genesis, verses one through twenty.

Example: Matthew-John
Result: Returns all records discussing the book Matthew through and including the book John.

Example: First Kings 2-7
Result: Returns all records discussing the first book of Kings, verses two through seven.

Example: First Kings 2-Second Kings 1
Result: Returns all records discussing the second chapter of the first book of Kings through the first chapter of the second book of Kings.

Citations referencing specific scriptural passages are also indexed in the Subjects data field under the heading “Bible”.  Because indexing practices vary between the two data fields, a search for the same scripture citation in the Subjects and Scripture Passage fields may not yield identical results. It may be profitable to perform a scripture search using both fields.

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Journal

Use this field to retrieve an article or review published in a specific journal or journal issue. This field can also be used to retrieve the serial record of a specific journal.

Language

Use this field to retrieve an article or review written in a specific language.

Record #

Use this field to retrieve article, review or serials records assigned a unique number by ATLA. Records that indicate a relationship with another record will also be retrieved when that record’s  unique number is searched.

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ISSN

Use this field to retrieve serial records, or articles and reviews within a serial publication with a given International Standard Serial Number.

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Limiters: Year

Use this field to retrieve an article or review published in a particular year or a serial that started in a specific year. The pull-down menu allows for selection of the type of year input: All years, Greater than (a specified year), Less than (a specified year), Equal to (a specified year), or a range (of specified years).

Limiters: Type

Use this field to retrieve specific types of records. There are four possible record types.

Article: Retrieves ATLA citations of articles and other journal contents along with the link to the available images or full text of that material. 

Review: Retrieves ATLA citations of reviews within journals along with the link to the available images or full text of that material. 

Other Matter: Retrieves ATLA citations of other matter within journals along with the link to the available images or full text of that material. Other matter records act as a placeholder and link to the issue's content which may not typically be indexed in article, review or other records. This content may include an issue's covers, table of contents, editorials, advertisements, book or article lists, indices, and any other matter.

Serial: Retrieves ATLA citations describing journal titles and their relationship to other journal titles along with links to the volume list of the ATLAS coverage for that title.

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SEARCH WITHIN ARTICLE/REVIEW TEXTS  – DETAILED FIELD DESCRIPTIONS

Anywhere in Text

Use this field to retrieve the PDFs of articles, reviews, or other materials from some journal issues.  Words or phrases (enclosed in single quotes) may be searched in this field to find full-text PDFs that contain those words or phrases anywhere within the text layer of that PDF.

Within a 10 Word Range

Use this field to retrieve PDFs of articles, reviews, or other matter from select journal issues.  Multiple words may be searched in this field to find full-text PDFs that contain 2 or more words within a range of 10 words within the text layer of that PDF.

Within a 25 Word Range

Use this field to retrieve PDFs of articles, reviews, or other materials from select journal issues.  Multiple words may be searched in this field to find full-text PDFs that contain 2 or more words within a range of 25 words within the text layer of that PDF.

Within a 50 Word Range

Use this field to retrieve PDFs of articles, reviews, or other materials from select journal issues.  Multiple words may be searched in this field to find full-text PDFs that contain 2 or more words within a range of 50 words within the text layer of that PDF.

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LOGICAL OPERATORS

Using Logical Operators Within Search Fields

It is possible to search for items in ATLAS by using a variety of search fields and logical operators. To add or change operators between search terms, enter one or more search term into a search field and, if using multiple search terms, combine the terms with logical operators AND, OR, and NOT.

Note: ATLA recommends use of logical operators only in the following fields: Keyword, Author/Editor, Title, Subjects, Journal, and Anywhere in Text. Logical operators cannot be used in the Scripture Search, Within a 10 Word Range, Within a 25 Word Range, and Within a 50 Word Range fields. 

Example: heresy AND power
Result: Retrieves records that contain both the word "heresy" and the word "power".

Example: heresy OR power
Result: Retrieves records that contain either the word "heresy" or the word "power" or records that contain both words.

Example: heresy NOT power
Result: Retrieves records that contain the word "heresy" but not records that also contain the word "power".

Note: You can increase the number of records found by changing where a term is truncated. To do this, type in the symbol "*" after typing in part of the word for which you want to receive all suffix endings, e.g. type Bap* or Bapt* or Baptis*.

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Using Logical Operators Between Search Fields in the Article/Review Texts Search

The Logical operators AND, OR or NOT may be used to combine the two full text search field results.  The operator preceding the second field will be used to combine the results of each field.

Example: A user has entered the terms psychology and faith to be found within 10 words and has also selected OR Freud to be found anywhere in the text.

Order of Procedure:  
1. The search engine finds articles or reviews that contain the terms psychology and faith within 10 words of each other

2. The results from step 1 are added to those that contain the term Freud anywhere within their text

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Operators Between Search Fields in the Citation Search and Full-text Search

Search results retrieved from the Citation Search may also be combined with those from the full-text portion of the ATLAS interface (“Search Within Article/Review Texts”) by selecting the logical operator from the box adjacent to the Search Within Article/Review Texts label.  The subset of results retrieved from the Citation Search will be combined with searches specified in the full-text portion of the ATLAS interface.

Example: Author Park AND Title Measures of Religiosity are selected in the Citation Search portion of the ATLAS interface. The logical operator between the Citation Search and Article/Reviews full text search is AND, and the full-text search fields contain term Alabama to be found “Anywhere in the Text”.

Result: The result of (Author Park AND Title Measures of Religiosity) is combined to the search for the term Alabama, resulting in Articles by Park, with a title of Measures of Religiosity, that have full-text articles or reviews containing the term Alabama.

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PHRASE SEARCHING

To match a string exactly, simply place the string inside single quotes. If  the search string contains words that are used as logical operators, enclosing the string in single quotes will allow the search system to recognize the words as searchable words rather than as logical operators.

Note: ATLA recommends use of phrase searching only in the following fields: Keyword, Author/Editor, Title, Subjects, Journal, and Anywhere in Text. Phrase searching cannot be used in the Scripture Search, Within a 10 Word Range, Within a 25 Word Range, and Within a 50 Word Range fields. 

Example: 'philosophy or miracles'
Result: Retrieves records that include the exact phrase "philosophy or miracles".

Example: Hume and 'philosophy or miracles'
Result: Retrieves records that include both the word "Hume" and the phrase "philosophy or miracles".

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TRUNCATION/WILDCARDS

It is possible to increase the number of records retrieved in a search by changing where a term is truncated. To do this, type in the symbol "*" after entering part of the word for which you wish to receive all suffix endings.

Example: Bap* or Bapt* or Baptis*
Result: Retrieves records that contain the words Baptist, Baptism, Baptismal, etc.

Example: Spa*
Result: Retrieves records that contain the words Spain, Spanish, Spaniard, etc.

Alternatively, it is also possible to enter the "*" symbol within a word in order to retrieve an increased result set.

Example: wom*n
Result: Retrieves records that contain the words woman, women, womyn.

Example: analy*e
Result: Retrieves records that contain either the word analyze or analyse

Note: ATLA recommends use of truncation searching only in the following fields: Keyword, Author/Editor, Title, Subjects, Journal, ISSN and Anywhere in Text. Truncation cannot be used in the Scripture Search, Within a 10 Word Range, Within a 25 Word Range, and Within a 50 Word Range fields.

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STOPWORDS

Stopwords are words that the ATLAS database does not include when processing a search query. ATLAS employs stopwords so that searches of unique content words can be performed more quickly, and to decrease the possibility of retrieving results irrelevant to the intended search.

The following words are ATLAS stopwords:

about

been

has

it

on

their

when

after

but

have

its

or

there

which

also

can

her

mr

over

they

who

any

co

his

ms

says

this

with

and

corp

if 

mz 

some

to

would

are

could

in

not

such

was

up

at

for

inc

only

that

we

 

because

had

is

of

the

were

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

&  

! 

? 

$ 

 

 

 

Note: typing a stopword along with valid search terms will allow the system to ignore the stopword but still process the search. If the search is successful, matched records will be retrieved. If the search includes only stopwords, no hits will be returned.

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QUICK SEARCH REFERENCE

 Input Search Criteria

The ATLAS search interface is not case-sensitive.

Enter search criteria for as many or few search fields as you wish by typing search terms in the search input boxes.  Search terms may be combined with logical operators,  truncated, or entered as a phrase within a search field.

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Select Logical Operators for Search Field Relationships

Click the drop-down logical operators list to define the relationship between search fields.   The logical operator preceding the second field will connect the terms within the first field with the terms in the next chosen search field.  For example, you may select Keyword = Moses AND Author/Editor = Davis.   The “AND” preceding the Author/Editor field connects the term(s) in the Keyword field with the Author/Editor field.  This logical operator connection of one search field and the next utilized search field applies across the Citation Search fields.  It similarly applies between the two fields within the Article/Review Texts Full-Text search.  Citation and Full-Text searches can be combined with the logical operator that is adjacent to the "Search Within Article/Review Texts" label. If there are no changes made to the Citation Search and the Limit portions of the search interface, all retrieved hits will contain full-text results. If information is entered into the Full-Text search and Limiters are also placed on the search, retrieved hits will contain both citation and full-text results.

Search

When all search criteria are entered, click the Search button.

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Viewing Search Results

The first 30 search results appear on the brief results list. Clicking the Next and Previous links moves through the complete list of results found. Choose an item from the results list,  then choose to view the full citation, the first page image of the item, or the html full- text of the item. Browsers can also be used to search within the html text once users are viewing a full-text html page.

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Printing and Saving in ATLAS

It is possible to print ATLAS GIF images using one of two ATLAS print interfaces, the Simple mode and the Advanced mode.  Citations in ATLAS should be printed using the browser's print function rather than the image print function.

PRINTING A RANGE OF IMAGES

When printing images, the Simple print mode allows the user to print a range of page images in a journal. To print a range of pages:

1. Enter the first page number in the page range you wish to print (for example, '25') in the entry box next to 'Print from page'. 

2. Enter the final page number in the range you wish to print in the entry box next to 'to'. 

3. Click the redisplay button for your browser to load these pages onto the screen. 

4. Once the pages have loaded, click the Print button to send the print job to the printer. 

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ADVANCED IMAGE PRINT FUNCTIONS

It is possible to scale ATLAS images relative to your paper size in the entry box next to 'Size:'  The default scale is 95% to allow additional room for margins that printers often add around a printed image on a piece of paper. If you wish to change the scale, enter a number with a percentage sign (e.g. 88%). If you wish to have the image displayed by pixel size, simply enter a number without the percent sign.

Users who use black and white printers that dither to represent color should set the dither setting on their printer to 'finest' to maximize legibility of page images.

Some browser software will allow you to print two successive page images side by side. To enable this feature:

1. Select '2' from the dropdown box located on the left-hand side of the Advanced print screen. 

2. Once the desired size is selected, click the Redisplay button. 

3. Before clicking the Print button, set your printer to Landscape printing mode (Microsoft Internet Explorer users can find this setting under File->Page->Setup Menu). Landscape printing causes pages to be printed sideways so that wider images (or two images side by side) can fit on one page. Click here to see an example of 2-across printing in Microsoft Internet Explorer. 

4. Click the Print button to print.

Note: Netscape browsers do not currently support 2-across printing. 

Important Browser Information

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PRINTING A PDF FILE

Use the print option available in Adobe Reader to print a PDF.

SAVING A PDF FILE

To save a PDF to a location of your choosing on a Microsoft Windows operating system, right-click on the PDF File link with your mouse and choose the "Save Target As..." option from the pop-up menu.  You may then choose the file name for the PDF as well as the location where you want it saved.

To save a PDF to a location of your choosing on a Macintosh operating system, you may access the download option by pressing the CTRL key at the same time you click on the PDF File link.

To save a PDF to a location of your choosing from within Adobe Reader, select File > "Save a Copy..." from the main menu. You may then choose the file name for the PDF as well as the location where you want it saved.

E-MAILING A PDF FILE

You may use the e-mail option within Adobe Reader to e-mail an ATLAS PDF  for individual use.  You may need to configure your Adobe Reader to call upon your e-mail software in order to use this feature in Adobe Reader.

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Linking to ATLAS Journals or PDFs

It is possible for institutional subscribers to provide links directly to an ATLAS journal volume list (for example, from your library's OPAC) if you access ATLA's version of ATLAS via IP-address authentication. If you access ATLAS via an account name and password or a method using an institutional account name and password, then you will need to log into ATLAS and obtain an active cookie on your browser in order to follow any link into ATLAS.  Browser cookies time-out after a period of inactivity, so you may need to log into ATLAS again following a period of inactivity to obtain an active cookie.

Following is a demonstration of how to construct a URL that will link to an ATLAS journal volume list, using the journal Arts as an example.

The following URL entered into in a browser's address field will link to the volume listing page for Arts, Volumes 1-12:

http://search.atlaonline.com/pls/eli/eli_bd.volsuper?TXT=n1093-1643

Note that once the link is resolved, it may appear differently in the browser address window than originally entered. It is important that the root directory of the link entered be search.atlaonline.com. Bookmarks or links to the resolved address that do not begin with search.atlaonline.com may not work or take you to the appropriate page.

You can use the same link pattern to create URLs for other ATLAS journals by switching the ISSN for each title within the URL. Arts' ISSN is 1093-1643. Adding Arts' ISSN (the ISSN appears at the end of the URL) yields the following URL:

http://search.atlaonline.com/pls/eli/eli_bd.volsuper?TXT=n1093-1643

In order to link to another journal, for example, Asian Folklore Studies, you would need to put the ISSN for this title, 0385-2342, in the URL:

http://search.atlaonline.com/pls/eli/eli_bd.volsuper?TXT=n0385-2342

The ISSN and URL to the volume list for each ATLAS journal are listed in an Excel spreadsheet

An URL may also be created that links to a specific PDF.  The following link will link to the PDF associated with the citation having record ID ATLA0000854602:

http://search.atlaonline.com/pls/eli/ec.pdfapp.showpdf?myaid=ATLA0000854602

Additional information on how links pointing to specific pages may be constructed is available in a Word document made available for use by Open URL providers and others. 

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ATLAS Support

For technical support for ATLA's electronic products e-mail support@atla.com.

ATLA Maintenance Notice

Routine maintenance will be performed on ATLA systems on the 1st Monday of each month at 5:30pm (CST or CDT, as applicable). Typically ATLAS users will not experience any interruption during this maintenance; however, on occasion, you may encounter interruption of service for a few minutes between 5:30pm and 6:00pm. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.             

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Last Help Page Update: August 15, 2007

Copyright © 2001-2007 American Theological Library Association.
All rights reserved.