Subject and Course Guides: Music Resources: Doing Music Research

Music Databases

Music Index
Music Index is a subject-author guide to music literature, reviews and news.

The Music Index Online, produced by Harmonie Park Press, is the single most comprehensive subject-author guide to music periodical literature. The Music Index Online has been available in print since 1949. In 2008, The Music Index Online coverage will span from 1973 to the present and contains surveyed data from over 850 music periodicals from over 40 countries. This database duly cites book reviews, obituaries, news periodicals, and news and articles about music, musicians, and the music industry.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (1967 to Present only)
Music studies indexed by Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale, 1985 to present. Limited to 7 simultaneous users.

Published by Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale, New York, this is a bibliographic citation database that contains records in over 200 languages; entries include English translations. Articles, books, bibliographies, catalogues, conference proceedings, discographies, dissertations, ethnographic recordings, films, videos and more are covered in RILM.
Oxford Music Online
Grove Music Online is the cornerstone. Oxford Music Online
is a gateway offering users the ability to access and cross-search multiple music reference resources in one location. Access limited to 5 simultaneous users.

Includes:
Grove Music Online
The Oxford Companion to Music
The Oxford Dictionary of Music
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Rock's Backpages
Over 24,000 classic articles on artists from Aaliyah to ZZ Top, on all genres from rockabilly to hip hop, by the finest music writers of the last 50 years.
American Memory
The Library of Congress provides free access to sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps and sheet music.

American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions.

Other useful databases

JSTOR
Digitized back issues of scholarly journals with a rolling date of five years ago. Covers a wide variety of disciplines. A portion of this resource was acquired with funding from the Library/IT Assessment.

Collections of back issues of scholarly journals in the following disciplines: arts and sciences, business, ecology and botany, and general science.
Project Muse
Journals in literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many others.

Project MUSE® offers more than 200 quality journal titles from some 30 scholarly publishers. It covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many others.
Humanities Abstracts (H.W. Wilson)
Abstracts covering diverse subject areas of the humanities. Find articles, reviews, interviews, obituaries, bibliographies, and original works of fiction. Access limited to 8 simultaneous users.

This database contains abstracts covering diverse subject areas of the humanities. The abstracts feature articles, book reviews, interviews, obituaries, bibliographies, original works of fiction (including dramas and poems), and reviews of plays and television and radio programs. Includes English and non-English records.
Sociological Abstracts
International literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.

Sociological Abstracts abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.

Streaming Music and Video

Classical Music in Video
Classical Music in Video is the definitive online collection for the study of classical music in video format. Coverage of musical time periods spans Medieval to the 21st century, and performances cover historical recordings from the 1950s up to the most current recordings today. This resource was acquired with funding from the Library/IT Assessment.

The collection will contain performances of all forms of classical music, including major orchestral performances by leading orchestras, plus chamber music, oratorio, and solo performances, along with masterclasses and interviews with master teachers from around the world.
Jazz Music Library
Now called Music Online: Listening. This resource is a multidisciplinary collection of audiovisual content that touches on the curriculum needs of virtually every department. The collection allows students and researchers alike to analyze unique and valuable content from over 500 producers and distributors around the world.This resource was acquired with funding from the Library/IT Assessment.
Music Online: Music & Performing Arts
Music Online: Music & Performing Arts aims to provide the most comprehensive database in streaming audio, video, reference, and scores on the web. Allows users to cross search all of the music databases published by Alexander Street Press. This resource was acquired with funding from the Library/IT Assessment.

Music Online will offer hundreds of thousands of audio recordings, growing monthly, plus 400,000 pages of scores, 100,000 pages of music reference, and over 500 hours of video
Naxos Music Library
Naxos Music Library [NML] is the world´s largest online classical music library. Note: limited to 15 simultaneous users.

Note: Naxos will temporarily deactivate your playlist account if you haven't logged in to your Naxos Music Library Member Playlist account through your institution's access point for some time. To reactivate, you must access Naxos Music Library from a computer on campus or through a campus network. If you are no longer a student, you can signup here (https://naxosmusiclibrary.com/subscription/subscribe.asp) as an individual subscriber to continue using NML.

For problems with your mobile app, contact cs@naxos.com

The library offers the complete Naxos and Marco Polo catalogues plus the complete catalogues or selected titles from over 378 classical, jazz and world music labels with more labels joining every month. Classic pop and rock music as well as Chinese orchestral music are also represented.

Tips for Searching Catalogs and Databases

In addition to the search techniques covered in the "Doing Reserach Tutorial" below, the following techniques can improve your success with online searching, whether you're searching a catalog for books or a database for articles:

Enter phrases in quotes: "Baroque music" "New Orleans jazz"
Use truncation symbols: Use an asterisk, *, to search for alternate word endings. In most databases, entering Music* searches for music , musician(s), musicology, musicianship, etc .
If one term doesn't work, try a few others. Experiment with different vocabulary related to your topic. Brainstorm ideas for relevant keywords and use background sources such as encyclopedias for suggestions.

Search Rolling Stone

Features music, album and artist news, movie reviews, political, economic and pop culture commentary, videos, photos, and more.

Rolling Stone, 1990-present

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Music Resources: Doing Music Research

Music Databases

Other useful databases

Streaming Music and Video

Tips for Searching Catalogs and Databases

Search Rolling Stone

Locations

Richard J. Daley Library

Library of the Health Sciences-Chicago

Library of the Health Sciences-Peoria

Crawford Library of the Health Sciences-Rockford

Library of the Health Sciences-Urbana