2 Micron All–Sky Survey (2MASS; Skrutskie 1997) and DENIS (Epchtein et al. 1997) will provide comprehensive catalogues of near–infrared sources with detection limits sensitive to a wide variety of stellar and non–stellar objects. Infrared spectra will be required for appropriate identification of many of these sources, and for further study of their astrophysical properties.

The pioneering study of Johnson and Mendez (1970) was the first to explore the spectra of a large sample of normal stars in the near–infrared. However many years passed before improvements in instrumentation made possible similar observations of large numbers of targets of astrophysical interest. The majority of the work done in near–infrared spectroscopy to date has been focused on the K–band, in large part because intrinsically cool or heavily obscured objects are typically brighter at K–band than in the J– or H–bands. In 1986, Kleinmann and Hall (1986; KH86) provided the first comprehensive medium resolution atlas ($R=3000$) of stellar spectra in the K-band, covering all luminosity classes, but restricted to spectral types between F8-M7. More recently, Wallace and Hinkle (1997; WH97) have extended the KH96 K–band atlas, using the same FTS spectrograph on the KPNO 4m with $R=3000$, but including stellar spectra spanning spectral types 