Skip to Main Content

Library Resource Guide for Pathways Students

Library Electronic Resource Guide for Pathways Students. Provides information on resource types, options and access.

Using ATLA Religion Database With ATLA Serials PLUS

The best indexing tool for finding articles in periodicals, essays within collected works and book reviews in the field of religious studies is the ATLA Religion Database (RDB) with AtlaSerials PLUS. ATLA-RDB provides full-text access through ATLAS Plus, an online collection of more than 500 major religion and theology journals chosen by leading religion scholars and theologians. Users can read scanned images of the articles they select, directly through the database.

ATLA Religion Database With ATLA Serials PLUS How to Guides

Sometimes it’s very helpful to be able to limit your search to certain types of records : articles in English only, for example, or articles published within the past five years.  It’s easy to impose search limits using this database.  And because the data store is quite large (more than 2 million records) it can make your searching a lot more efficient.

 

Finding articles in a specific journal

Suppose you would like to find articles about Egypt that were published in the periodical Mission Studies.  The Advanced Search screen allows you to coordinate search terms easily, using the drop-down menus.

Enter the word Egypt in the first box. It’s not necessary to select a field from the drop-down menu; if you do not select one, the program will search for your term anywhere in the bib record — the Title, Abstract, Subject and other fields. In the second box, type the name of the specific journal you are looking for, and then click on the drop-down menu. You want to choose Source, because that is the right limiter for a periodical title.

Click on the Search button. You receive a set of articles dealing specifically with Egypt that were published in that periodical. If you prefer, you can also use the Publications option explained below.

Scripture Searching

The ATLA-RDB offers a unique method of searching the data store, one that is not found in any other EBSCOHost database.  It’s called the “Hierarchical Scripture Authority.”  This intimidating name actually indicates something with which all of our users are already familiar : it uses the canonical structure of the Bible itself to find verses in their Bible context.  When you choose a verse using this method, you will retrieve the articles in the data store that include discussion of that verse, no matter how the passage or pericope is defined by the author of the article.

Using the “Hierarchical Scripture Authority”

From the advanced search screen, you will see a set of tabs below the search boxes.  First, click on the tab marked Subjects.

Scripture Hierarchy Step 1

 

From the Atla drop-down box, select Atla Scripture Search.

 

You see a list of the books of the Bible in canonical order.  Let’s suppose you are looking for articles discussing Genesis 1:1.

Next to Genesis, you see the + plus icon.  Click on it.

First, it will offer you a list of all of the chapters in the book of Genesis.  If you click on the + plus icon again next to Chapter 1, it will take you to the next level of detail — all of the verses of Chapter 1. 

Choose a verse and click the Add to Search button to include it in your search.

The scripture pericope you selected has now  been added to your search. You are ready to click the Search button!

You receive a list of all of the articles in this database that concentrate upon the passage you are looking for.  Please note that you are able to retrieve these articles even if the verse you chose is included inside a longer passage. 

To further narrow your search results, select the All filters button located at the top of the search results page, select your desired search filter option from the pop-out box to the right and click Apply.

Find the full electronic coverage for any journal in the database

Notice to the left of the search page, under Research tools, a link labelled Publications.  Click on that link.

You have two choices at this point : you can type in the name of a specific journal in the search box — such as Catholic Biblical Quarterly.

Or, you can use the A-Z list.  Click on the letter C, then CA, and scroll down the list to Catholic Biblical Quarterly.  It shows the range of bibliographic coverage (articles cited in the database) and also the range of full text coverage.

Almost everyone looking for these research tools will start from our Library homepage, and then click on Online Databases,  under the LIBRARY RESOURCES tab.  Our homepage is the hub for all of the electronic information we make available to our users.

Once you have opened one of the EBSCO databases and started using it, you might decide to move to another and find out what that one has to offer on your topic. Or, you might like to select several of them and search them at the same time. To do this, first click the name of the database you are currently searching.

You receive a dialogue box showing all of the online databases to which we subscribe from this vendor.  We list only the most heavily used resources on our Online Databases page, but as you can see, there are many more available in other disciplines and subject areas. Feel free to explore any of these.  If your research interests overlap from the traditional religious studies areas into social science, medicine, humanities, etc., these resources could be most helpful.

Click in the little box beside each database you want, and then click on the button marked Select.

If the set of results you receive is way too big — hundreds, or even thousands of bib records — probably your search is just too general and you need to add more terms to narrow your search. For example, if you search for healing as a subject, you are likely to get thousands of records, using the term in many different contexts. As you add terms, your target will become more and more specific.

This search will retrieve a workable set of records specifically about the Sabbath healing miracles of Jesus and their theological implications.

You also have several options for filtering your results after you make your initial search. On the search results screen, from the menu located above your search results select All Filters which opens a side menu on the right from which you can further refine your search.

Under All Filters, you can keep only those articles that exist in full-text digital formats that you can read online. Or, you can limit by publication year, keeping only articles that appeared between 2015 and 2020, perhaps.

You can also filter by Source Types (academic journals or periodicals, books, media), or by the title of the journal in which the article appeared (under Publication). You can also use the Library of Congress Subject headings to push your search in a particular direction.

Click on the tiny v-shaped arrow symbol to expand and close these menus. Some of these may take a little practice to use effectively, so we encourage you to experiment with each of them.

A classroom assignment will often require you to find reviews of a certain book that were published in scholarly journals.  The simplest way of doing this is to use the limiters on the lower half of the Advanced Search screen, below the Filters menu.

There are many options available in this area : you can choose to bring up only articles available in full text online; only articles with abstracts; only articles published in peer-reviewed journals (as opposed to more popular publications); articles published between certain specified dates, and so on.  There is also a box in which you can enter the title of a specific journal, which gives you another way to make that choice.

Notice the little box labeled Publication Type.  If you scroll down that menu, you will find that Review is one of the options.  Click on Review to select it.

In the Search boxes at the top of the screen, enter the title of the book for which you are seeking reviews.  For example, suppose you need reviews of H. Richard Niebuhr’s pivotal work Christ and Culture.  If you enter that title without limiting your search to book reviews, you will also retrieve lots of unrelated articles.  But if you use this limiter, you will more efficiently retrieve a set of book reviews about this particular work.

If you find that you are retrieving many records about other works with similar or related titles, you might want to add the name of the author to focus in precisely on the work you want.

Saving, emailing or printing your search results

 

Once you have done a search and retrieved a lot of records, you might want to select some of them and keep them to use later.  You have several options for saving or sending this information.

Saving Records

You will probably want to save only certain selected items from your results list, not everything. You can scroll down through your list, choosing the records that interest you most. To select a record, click on the book mark icon on the far right top edge of the record. When you click on it, the icon will turn blue. This will save the record for you.

Now, look under the My dashboard menu to the left of the search screen. You will see the same Saved icon. Click it  to see the record you have saved.

 

Cite, Share/Email and Print Options

To the right of the save option above each record note the three vertical dots. Click on it to reveal the additional options: Cite, Add to project, Share, Download. 

The Cite tool not only allows you to copy your desired citation to your device's clipboard but also export it to third-party citation software such Zotero or RefWorks.

To share or email your records, click on Share.  The Share menu allows you to send your article to Google Drive, One Drive or create a persistent link.  From the Email menu you can send a PDF full text of the article along with a citation of your record to multiple email addresses if you wish.  Typically, the ATLAS database will send a separate email for each bib record.  When you receive each message, you should be able to open the record by clicking on the “Persistent link.”

When you click on the “Persistent link” in the email message, the bib record will open in a new browser window. Notice that this record has a Access now PDF button within it.  If the record you save has such a link, the link will be active, so that you can open the article itself without having to repeat your search.

To print your selected records, select the Download option. Once your article is downloaded and you have opened it in a new browser window select the print icon and follow the browser prompts to print.