Reference
Indexes, guides to the literature, and discographies: 016.78
Schirmer's Guide to Books on Music and Musicians
R 016.78 D253s
Song Index
R 016.784 Se17s
Blue Note Label: A Discography
R 016.789912 C951b
Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and companions: 780.3
Harvard Dictionary of Music
R 780.3 Ap22h4
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
R 780.3 G919di2
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music
R 780.9 G183s
The New Oxford History of Music
R 780.9 N42
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
R 781.6403 En19L
The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments
R 781.9103 N42s
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera
R 782.103 N42s
The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz
R 785.4203 N42k
Biographical information: 927.8
Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians
R 927.8 B177b8
International Encyclopedia of Women Composers
R 927.8 C66i2
The bibliographies at the end of the articles or essays may provide a title that interests you. Be careful in citing this information - it is third hand by the time you read it. Ask a librarian or your professor for help in forming your citations.
Online Catalog
Searching the online catalog will lead you to our book collection. You'll notice some call numbers with a single or double "M." These indicate musical scores (MM = miniature), which are shelved adjacent to the other 780 call numbers upstairs.
Some tips:
- Keyword: most flexible, most results
- Subject: more restrictive, categories, works like an index Ex.: music 16th century
- Title: more restrictive, have precise titles, works like an index.
- Remember, if you want criticism on a composer, use "criticism" with the composer's name in the keyword search as follows: Bach criticism
Databases
International Index to Music Periodicals (IIMP or Music Index)
This database contains citations to articles from 500 international music journals. It consists of citations to articles - there is no full-text available, so check our online Journals List. Use UCA as a resource - check their catalog as well. As a last resort, order your article from interlibrary loan.
- Use the Advanced Search for more options.
- Use quotes to search phrases.
- Note the "Narrow Results By" section on the right side - narrowing by broad or narrow subject is especially useful.
- Use truncation: "*" on the end of your term will retrieve words that have the same stem, but different endings, ex: pian* retrieves piano, pianos, pianists, etc.
- To eliminate reviews, choose the "Article" option from the Document Type menu.
Classical Music Library
Close to 150,000 classical music recordings online that cover a full range of time periods and styles.
- Make sure the settings on your computer allow you to download sound files from Classical Music Library - you may need to adjust them.
- Use Advanced Search for more specific options (opus, album title, ensemble, etc.) or browse by composer or genre.
- CML allows you to embed links, create playlists, and create clips.
Humanities Full Text
A more general database that includes citations and some full text articles.
- Break the phrase searching by inserting an "and"!
- Check Subjects on the left side to narrow searching.
JSTOR
A full text database that may not have the latest articles - watch those dates!
- Search the Music journals for more relevant results.
- Select "Article" to eliminate reviews.
- Consider broadening your search to citations by deselecting "Include only content I can access."
Interlibrary Loan
Remember that you can use interlibrary loan to get books and articles that we and UCA don't have. Check our catalog and Journals List as well as UCA's catalog and Journals List first. Use our interlibrary loan forms to order your materials.
Last Modified on 8/27/2012