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Starting Research: Music

 

 

In this Guide:

Databases and Indexes

Current Events
Library Catalogs

Reference Resources

Selected Web Sites

Style and Citation Guides

Resources at Grinnell

 

NEED HELP?

Rebecca Stuhr

Consulting Librarian for Music

stuhrr @ grinnell. edu

x3674

 

Library Labs

Research Tips and Strategies

 

 

Visit the Music Department at Grinnell College

 

Databases and Indexes

 

Tips for finding articles and books and media

RILM: Abstracts of Music Literature --the comprehensive database to the music literature. Indexes articles, books, conference proceedings, bibliographies, catalogues, dissertations, festchriften, iconographies, critical commentaries to complete works, ethnographic recordings and videos, reviews and more. Particularly strong for classical music. For popular music publications see

 

Academic Search Premier --indexing publications like Billboard, Rollingstone, Downbeat, and more.

 

Oxford Music Online Oxford Music Online expands Grove Music Online and comprises the full text of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, and the Oxford Companion to Music.

 

Arts and Humanities Citation Index--good international coverage of the journal literature in the arts. You can also search by "cited author." Ask a librarian for assistance.

 

Historical Abstracts-Covers world history after 1450, except for the U.S. and Canada. Includes articles, books, collections, and dissertations from over 2,000 journals. For the U.S. and Canada search America: History and Life. These two databases can be searched together.

 

Humanities International Index-Covers journals as well as books and reference sources in the humanities.

 

Naxos Music Library --streamed access to hundreds of classical, world music, and new age recordings.

 

Project Muse and JSTOR provides access to the full text of a large number of journals in the social sciences, humanities. Literature and history are included in these collections but you will find even more citations to articles in even more literature and history journals by searching the RILM and Historictal Abstracts.

 

 

Additional Databases and Indexes

 

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Library Catalogs

Grinnell College Libraries: books, media, Web sites, databases, art work, and more

 

WorldCat-This is the library catalog of library catalogs. s catalog.Use this to find material at libraries around the world including books in most languages, recordings, visual material, music scores, archival material, newspapers, journals--almost anything except journal articles.

 

Center for Research Libraries: A wide ranging collection of hard to find materials. More information.

 

More library catalogs

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Reference Resources

Library of Congress classification for music falls into M for the actual music scores; ML for "literature of music--or books and other material that are about music; and MT = for more technical or how-to literature on music and music education.

 

This is just a selection:

Encyclopedia of Popular Music

Reference ML102.P66 G84 2006

 

Taruskin's Oxford History of Western Music

Reference and Stacks ML160 .T18 2005

 

Sourcebook for Research in Music

Reference ML113 .C68 2005

 

Music in Latin American and the Caribbean: An Encyclopedic Guide

Reference ML199 .M858 2004

 

Harvard Dictionary of Music

Reference ML100 .A64 2003

 

Garland Encyclopedia of World Music

Reference and Listening Room ML100 .G16 1997 (ten volumes each with a CD)

 

Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians

Reference ML105 .B16 2001

 

The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers

Reference ML105 .N66 1994

 

 

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Web Sites

Archives of African American Music and Culture

Afrocentric Voices (Created and maintained by Randye Jones)

Bach Bibliography

Music Copyright Pages, University of Washington

Music Competitions and Contests University of Washington

Film and TV Music Resources, University of Washington

World Music Instruments (Roger Vetter)

AMS WWW Sites of Interest to Musicologists

Yale Library's links to Scores Online and to Sheet Music Collections

Internet Public Library: Music

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Style and Citation Guides

Style Guides from the University of California-Berkeley Library including MLA and Chicago/Turabian.
Assembling a List of Works Cited in Your Paper: Duke University Libraries
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers Perm Reserve PN147 .G444 1998
RefWorks A web-based service that allows you to import citations, create bibliographies, and more.

 

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Resources at Grinnell

Grinnell Writing Lab
Music Department

 

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Need Help?

Rebecca Stuhr. x3674

Consulting Librarian for Music

Grinnell College Libraries. June 2007

 

Library Labs

Research Tips and Strategies

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