Special to the Journal

ATLANTA — Georgia Public Library Service will officially unveil its new online Kids’ PINES Catalog as part of Children’s Day at the Capitol on Thursday, Jan. 23. The catalog will be used at more than 275 participating public libraries around the state.

Kids’ PINES Catalog

PINES — short for Public Information Network for Electronic Services — is the library lending network that offers Georgia citizens a shared catalog of 10.6 million items, accessible with a single library card that is welcomed in all member libraries. Now boasting nearly 3 million registered cardholders, PINES is a national leader in library cooperation and resource sharing.

The Kids’ PINES Catalog has a streamlined, more colorful and child-friendly design than the main PINES online catalog. Only those 350,000-plus books, DVDs, CDs and other items that have been cataloged in PINES as children’s materials will show up in search results.

The main page features preset search buttons for popular and season-specific subjects, such as dinosaurs, princesses, award-winning books and Valentine’s Day. It also offers a link to a Dewey Decimal System chart showing the locations of some of the most popular nonfiction areas — such as mythology, science fair projects, pets and magic tricks — that are of interest to children. From the basic search on the catalog’s main screen, children and parents can narrow search results to a specific library and/or to three specific age groups: preschool, primary or tween.

The Kids’ PINES Catalog features GPLS-commissioned illustrations by noted Georgia children’s book illustrator Michael P. White, best known for his work on the popular “Library Dragon” books. The dedicated catalog’s Web address is www.gapines.org/kpac.

“We hope that children and parents who are holders of PINES library cards will find this new discovery tool to be fun and engaging,” said PINES Program Director Elizabeth McKinney.

“There could be no better occasion for us to launch the new catalog than during the 2014 Children’s Day at the Capitol,” said Elaine Black, director of Youth Services for GPLS. “Sponsored by Voices for Georgia’s Children, this is a significant annual event that helps illustrate to Georgia’s elected officials the importance of investing in our children.”

The introduction of the Kids’ PINES Catalog is the most visible aspect of an overall PINES catalog upgrade that took place Jan. 16-20. According to McKinney, users of the main PINES catalog may also notice improvements in accessibility by smartphones and other mobile devices, as well as the ability to browse the catalog by author, subject and genre headings.