Music Materials at the Library, Part II: Online Databases …and other Web resources (part 2 of our saga)

Back to the library home page:

Click on “Electronic Databases”:

Click on “By Subject”: (After becoming acquainted with your options you may wish to use the “By Title” link.)

Click on “Music”:

The small green arrow in the left-hand column indicates that the database may be accessed from an off-campus location. For further directions, click on the “Off-Campus Access” link.

Directions for access off-campus:

Click on the “Music Index Online” link:

Music Index Online: Indexes Music periodicals from 1979 to the present Covers over 700 international music-related journals Covers many different journals than RILM, although some overlap does occur Tends to cover popular music-related periodicals more so than RILM

Again, the Music Index online indexes journals from 1979 to the present. Skip the basic search and click on “Expert,” which provides opportunity for a more efficient search.

Enter your term(s). This example searches for items about the opera “Wozzeck”: Click on the “Start Search” button. (Help instructions are located at the top of the screen, not within screen view. Particularly note possible use of wildcard characters.)

The search results in a listing of 752 items. Click on the underlined links to view a complete citation.

An example of a full citation: Note any additional subject headings that may be useful in a new search.

To help narrow your search, enter a second term.

Adding the term “analysis” to the search resulted in a listing of 9 items. (Note the indication of “Dissertation Abstracts International” in the eighth record. Dissertations are often difficult to obtain, but the RILM database may contain a very useful abstract about the same title.)

Another example of a “Full Citation”: (Note, WSU does in fact own a copy of the journal “Musical Quarterly,” volume 71, number 4, To find it’s exact location, you will have to search the online catalog separately for a call number. The JSTOR-Full Text link at the right is misleading as WSU’s current subscription package does not include music periodicals.)

If you are unsure of a spelling, enter a term spelled like you think it sounds and choose the “Sounds Like” option from the “Word Form Options” pull-down menu.

The “Sounds Like” option retrieved all established and variant spellings in our search for “Stravinski.” (2073 citations)

If you can avoid it, do NOT use any additional punctuation. Enter a first name followed by a last name, ex. John Cage.

Enclose all names and terms with additional punctuation, such as an apostrophe, in quotation marks. Ex. “L’Histoire du Soldat.”

To print a citation, use the “File” pull-down menu from your browser options. There are no options or links to the WSU catalog.

Click on RILM Abstracts of Music Literature…

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature Provides abstracts and indexing for music-related items from 1969 to the present Covers over 500 scholarly journals, books, bibliographies, dissertations, festchriften, etc., Covers different journals than Music Index, but with some overlap Has a much more scholarly focus relative to Music Index

Skip the “Basic Search” and click on the “Advanced Search” link: (Note the “Author” field designation. RILM does not search keywords in the “Author” field.)

Note the “Help” icon…

The help screens in the “Advanced Search” option all relate to the RILM database. (This is not the case in a “Basic Search.”)

Note the “Browse Index” Icon… After entering the term “Impromptu” click on the “Browse Index Icon.

The “Browse Index” reveals that there are 81items related to “impromptu.” It also shows that there are some related forms of the term that may be useful. (Particularly the plural form “impromptus.”) Click on the form of the term you wish to search…

…and the search term is inserted back in the “Search for” field. Click on the “Search” button to see the results.

The results show 81 records…

You can mark the boxes to refine your list… As circled, the funny little icon shows that Wichita State has the item (or part of the item) in it’s collection. You can click on either the linked title or the “See more details for locating this item” links to look at the full record.

A full record. Note the “Source” is often a larger work in which the item may be found. Note the abstract, usually a very helpful description of the item. And the descriptors, other search terms you may wish to use to help refine your search. Also notice the links in the upper left corner, a direct link to interlibrary loan (ILL) the item, a link to a copy of the record to yourself, and a link to print the record.

Again, RILM will not seach a keyword in the author field. Change the pulldown menu to “author.”

This record for Professor Herzog was retrieved. Her authorship is confirmed in the citation.

Click on the “Grove Music Online” link.

Grove Music Online This is the electronic version of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, and the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, all combined. Find here full text articles about people, places, styles, musical forms, etc. Particularly useful for bibliographies and worklists. Paper copies may be found in the reference section of the Music Library (the latest edition) and Ablah Library (reference section and 2 nd floor, 1980 editions).

The Grove Music homepage: The “Search” box at the top only searches article headings.

Note the small, red, “opera” icon. This indicates an article from the New Grove Dictionary of Opera. The opera article on Mozart focuses specifically on Mozart’s operatic involvement.

Our search results: (Note that both left and right outlines are links to portions of the larger article. The outline on the left provides more detailed subdivisions.)

When clicking on the link for “(Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart”:

A subsection of the larger article on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:

An section of the “Works” list:

A section of the “bibliography” listing: (Note: to find the full word or phrase represented by an abbreviation, enter the selection in the “Find Abbrevs” box.)

Abbreviation search results appear on the left. The initial section under examination remains in view in the right frame.

To search within the contents of articles click on “Full Text”:

To search for a combination of terms, choose the “boolean” option: (Note: The search tips at the bottom of the screen.)

A search for “Cage” and “Cowell” results in a list of 43 articles referring to both composers.

As an example, the article on “Exoticism” mentions both composers (highlighted in red).

If you are unsure of which headings exist, in the “Browse” section, click on “Articles A-Z”:

Enter a term in the “Go to” box and hit the “enter” button. (Note the “jazz” and “opera” icons for articles from the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz and the New Grove Dictionary of Opera.

In searching for the heading “Concerto” the matching search term appears in red, surrounded by alphabetically related terms. To skip to another alphabetical section, click on the line of letters towards the top of the screen.

The “Concerto” article:

Other Online Sources…

Analyzing a website Authority –Is there an identifiable author? –What’s the author’s affiliation, background, credentials? –Are there any indications from the domain name (.org or.com) if this is a personal page or a page maintained by an organization?

This address: is an indication that this is a government page. This site is maintained by the Library of Congress.

With contact information at the bottom of the page…

This site was clearly developed by the National Library of Canada:

Accuracy –Are sources of factual information listed for future verification? –What were the methods used to obtain the data on the site? –Are there errors (factual or grammatical) on the page?

In this case the image is a good hint that the information here might not be factual.

Objectivity –Is there a commercial sponsor or heavy advertising on the site? –What is the purpose of the page? –Is the site published by a professional association?

In a search for “Lyrics Censorship” on the web, this page was listed. There are links to censorship incidents, and the page has an “official” look, but mostly it’s trying to sell a book.

Currency –When was the information gathered? –Is there a publication or copyright date? –Do most of the links work?

This page (the Music Library) provides the date of the latest update.

The latest semester hours are also displayed, another hint about currency.

Coverage –Is the length of the publication appropriate to the purpose of the site? –If there is a print equivalent, is the entire version presented on the webpage? –Does the site provide descriptive annotations or just listings? –What percentage of references are simply external links to other sources?

This site, allmusic.com, is often very useful for information about popular recordings. In this case the review is extremely brief and highly opinionated. Other sources should be consulted for further information.

While not too lengthy, the information at “Grove Music Online” provides more information about the composer.

From the WSU Libraries homepage click on the “Music Library” link.

The initial page describes the services and policies of the Music Library. Click on the “Online Music Resources” link.

Find here links to WSU resources and links to online databases.

General music related links…

Links for specific areas of music studies….

More…

And some interesting links, just for fun…

If you have any questions or need further information, please contact me by To return to the Music Library page Click hereClick here.