Music Research Guide

The purpose of this guide is to help you find quality information on music-related topics to support research for MVCC music courses.

Subject headings
Finding background information
Finding materials in the library's collection
Periodicals
Audio/visual media
Finding music-related articles
Web resources

Library catalog subject headings

"Music" as a subject heading is probably too broad. Try using narrower terms.
Music 18th Century (or 17th, 19th, 20th)
Music United States (or other country name)
Music history and criticism
Music theory
Musical instruments
Popular music
Rock music
Jazz
Beethoven (or other composer name)

Use encyclopedias and dictionaries to find background information on a topic and to identify search terms.

Britannica Online – look here for background information on composers, genres, musical periods, and some images
The Harvard Dictionary of Music
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz
The New Grove Dictionary of American Music
Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia
The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre
The Oxford Companion to Music
New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll

Music-related materials in the Library’s collection

To find books, periodicals and audio/visual materials about a topic, do a subject search in the catalog using the suggested Library of Congress subject headings listed above.
For works by a composer, search by author.
If you know the title of a book or musical work, search by title.

Periodicals

To find titles of music-related magazines and journals that the library subscribes to:
1.  Do a subject search for music in the catalog
2.  Click the limit this search button (at the top of the page) to limit the material type to magazines/news.
Most of the music-related magazines and journals in the collection are available electronically in one of the article databases. The catalog record will list the format available and, if it is an electronic resource, the database that has the periodical.

Audio/visual media

To find sound recordings in the library collection:
1.  Do a subject search for music in the catalog
2.  Click the limit this search button (at the top of the page) to limit the material type to cassette/tape or compact disc.
To find videos, limit the search to videocassette or DVD.

Finding music-related articles in the library's databases

Most of the library’s magazines and journals specifically about music are carried in the databases listed below. Ask a librarian or see the Finding Journal and Magazine Articles Guide for help with using the article databases.
Academic Search Premier indexes 80 music-related publications, of which approximately half are available as full-text.
Expanded Academic ASAP provides access to approximately 30 music-related publications.

Recommended Web sites

Allmusic is a comprehensive resource for information about musicians, albums, and genres.
Librarians' Internet Index: Music is a portal to numerous websites that have been selected and evaluated by librarians
Worldwide Internet Music Resources from the William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University School of Music is a portal to hundreds of music-related websites, both popular and classical.
The Library of Congress - Performing Arts Reading Room: Music, Theater & Dance provides access to the LC’s “collections of scores, sheet music, audio recordings, films, photographs, maps, and other materials.”

Updated 8/24/06 Laura Dare, Librarian