ATLA Religion Database

ATLA Religion Database
Producer American Theological Library Association (United States)
Access
Providers EBSCO & Ovid
Cost Subscription
Coverage
Disciplines Theology and Religious studies
Format coverage Journal articles, essays and book reviews
Temporal coverage 1949 - Present
Geospatial coverage Global
Number of records Over 1.82 million
Update frequency Quarterly
Links

The ATLA Religion Database or ATLA RDB, is an index of academic articles in the area of religion.[1] It is updated quarterly by the American Theological Library Association (ATLA). The database indexes journal articles, essays and book reviews related to a wide range of scholarly fields related to religion. The database is available on a subscription basis, via electronic storage media or as an OpenURL source.

The total database includes over 1.8 million article citations from over 1,700 journals. There are more than a quarter of a million essay citations from more than 18,000 multi-author works. The number of book reviews is over half a million.[2] ATLA indexes multi-author works, such as Festschriften and conference proceedings, with separate records for each essay.

Contents

Formats

The ATLA Religion Database has been available as both a CD-ROM and as a MARC record format database.[3] The database also incorporates several print indexes, including Religion Index One: Periodicals, Religion Index Two: Multi-Author Works, and Index to Book Reviews in Religion.[1]

Coverage

The database indexes scholarly works on major world religions.[4] There are, however, selection criteria for inclusion according to scholarly merit and scope. More than 60 languages are represented. Some records cover articles as far back as the 19th century. ATLA claim full coverage for core journals back to 1949.

ATLA RDB has received criticism for under-representing the emerging fields of lesbian theology and womanist theology in its coverage.[5]

Scholarly fields with significant degrees of coverage include:

References

  1. ^ a b Golderman, Gail; Connolly, Bruce (April 15, 2011). "Finding Religion". Library Journal 136 (7): 120–126. 
  2. ^ "ATLA Religion Database® (ATLA RDB®)". American Theological Library Association. http://www.atla.com/products/catalog/Pages/rdb-db.aspx. Retrieved July 31, 2011. 
  3. ^ Luedtke, Tami (1998). "American Theological Library Association Summary of Proceedings". American Theological Library Association. pp. 243-246. ISSN 0066-0868. 
  4. ^ Campbell, Cameron J. (2004). "World Religions/Religious Studies in ATLA's RDB". American Theological Library Association Summary of Proceedings. pp. 85 - 89. ISSN 0066-0868. 
  5. ^ Smailes, Suzanne A. (May 1996). Reliability of Coverage of Periodical Indexing of Lesbian Theological and Womanist Theological Articles in the ATLA Religion Database (Master of Library Science thesis). Kent State University. http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/recordDetail?accno=ED401940. 

External links