State Library of Kansas
Agency overview | |
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Formed | 1855 |
Preceding agency |
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Jurisdiction | State of Kansas |
Headquarters |
300 SW 10th Avenue Topeka, Kansas 39°02′53″N 95°40′41″W / 39.04806°N 95.67806°WCoordinates: 39°02′53″N 95°40′41″W / 39.04806°N 95.67806°W |
Agency executive |
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Website | State Library of Kansas Website |
The State Library of Kansas is a department within the state government of Kansas, with locations in Topeka and Emporia. Jo Budler is the State Librarian.
Locations
The research collections and most of the staff of the State Library of Kansas have been located on the third floor of the Kansas State Capitol at 10th and Jackson Streets in downtown Topeka, Kansas, since 1900. In December, 2009, the staff was moved out of its third floor location in the State Capitol and into mobile units on the Capitol grounds during renovation of the north wing of the Capitol. The Library's collections were moved to an Annex in Topeka in April, 2010. A return to the third floor of the Capitol is scheduled from sometime in 2012. The Library's Talking Books Library is located in the lower level of the Student Union, Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas.
Databases onsite
Databases available from the State Library are accessible from any computer maintained by DISC.
NewsBank provides full-text articles from the electronic editions of record for more than 600 U.S. newspapers in one database.
Lexis-Nexis State Capital is a web-based service provides access to documents from all 50 state capitals. Source material includes bills and laws, constitutions, proposed and enacted regulations, legislature membership, and newspapers of record.
Million Dollar Database provides comprehensive marketing information on both public and private companies and their executives. The State Library has subscribed to the Kansas portion of the database including Kansas companies and companies with a subsidiary located in Kansas.
Kansas Center for the Book
The Kansas Center for the Book is a state affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. The Kansas Center for the Book affiliated with the national Center for the Book in 1987, and was hosted and headquartered at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library from then until 2005, when it moved to the State Library of Kansas. It is now a non-profit, tax-exempt program of the State Library. It presents the annual Kansas Notable Book Awards.
Kansas Talking Books
The Kansas Talking Book Service, headquartered in Emporia, Kansas, provides books, newspapers and magazines in braille and recorded format with playback equipment to any Kansas citizen unable to use standard print because of visual or physical impairment. The program is coordinated through the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.
The Service heads a network of Kansas Talking Book subregional libraries located in Great Bend, Manhattan, Norton, Wichita and Topeka, Kansas.
Kansas Virtual Library
The Online Services division lends downloadable audio books, music, and video. In order to use this service, a free software needs to be installed. This division also provides a Kansas Library Card, which allows access to these databases:
- FirstSearch – articles from electronic journals and full-text journals.
- InfoTrac Web – citations and full-text articles in journals and other news sources.
- SIRS Discoverer – Reference database for which helps students in grades 1–9 develop their research, writing, language and computer skills.
- NetLibrary eBooks – More than 12,000 eBooks are available.
- ProQuest – Includes Nursing Journals Database, The ABI/Inform suite of Business and Economics resources and Research Library (2250 full text journals).
- Informe! (Revistas en Español) – Una colección de revistas hispánicas con textos completos. Abarca negocios, salud, tecnología, cultura, temas de actualidad y otras materias.
- Heritage Quest – A genealogy database.
- Literature Resource Center – Includes author biographies, literary essays, overviews, plots, criticism and critical essays on poetry, children literature, classical and medieval works, plus much more.
- Custom Newspapers – A full text database of over 160 U.S. newspapers.
- World Book Encyclopedia – Every article in the 22-volume print edition.
This division also allows access Homework Kansas. Homework Kansas provides Free Tutoring in Math, Science, Social Studies, and English for Grades 4–12 and College Intro.
Research and Information Division
The Research and Information Division serves the research and reference needs of state government and the general public. The Division, located in Topeka, has a collection of over 250,000 titles including books, magazines, current newspapers, U.S. federal documents, Kansas government documents, Kansas legislative material and a newspaper clippings file dating back to the 1920s. Research assistance is provided for walk-in, telephone, text message, instant message and email questions. Interlibrary loan service is also available providing material within the library's collection to people around the world.
References
Further reading
- Gardiner, Allen. The Kansas State Library (1983)
External links
- Official website
- State Library's Ask-A-Question service
- Kansas Center for the Book
- Kansas Reads to Preschoolers
- Kansas Talking Book Library Services
- State Library of Kansas online catalog
- KGI Online Library (online Kansas state government publications provided by State Library of Kansas)