Finding Books

Most research assignments should have a combination of different source types within your research. Books are a great resource for doing research. E-books and physical books both fall into this category.

Books differ from peer-reviewed journal articles because books provide general overviews of a topic, whereas articles are shorter and more specific.

Remember: You don't have to read the entire book! If there is one chapter in the book that works for your topic, just read that chapter.

Find Books at the VCSU Library

Using the VCSU Library Catalog

The link to the library catalog will take you to an advanced search. Use these steps to fill in the search box:

Make sure the "library catalog" option is selected at the top of the search box.
Enter the keyword you want to search.
Add a second keyword to the next line if you want to be more specific.
Click the "material type" dropdown menu on the right side of the box, then choose "books."
The language dropdown is right below the material type. Pick English from these options unless you specifically need a book in another language.
If you need a book published during a specific time period, use the start date and end date options below the language menu to set a date range.
Click search to get your results!

Your results will come up as a list of sources with the ability to save links. Along the right side of the page is a sidebar with more filtering options.

The sidebar is labeled "Tweak your results." Use some or all of the following tips to narrow down your results further:

Your results are normally sorted by relevance, but you can sort them by date, title, or author instead if you prefer.
Use the "availability: section to choose what format of book you prefer. If you want E-books, choose "available online." If you want physical books, choose "physical items."
You can use the "subject" section to make sure you are only looking at sources from the fields of study you need. For example, If I want to research space exploration, but the search term "exploration" brought information about both exploring space and historical exploration of the United States, I can check here for ways to filter out the unwanted options.
If you didn't add a date to your original search or if you don't like the date range you used, you can edit the date range under the "creation date" section.

Finding Scholarly Articles

These articles are basically the "bread-and-butter" sources for scholarly research - they're used in every discipline.

What does peer-reviewed mean?

If an article is peer-reviewed that means that before the article was published it was reviewed and scrutinized by other experts in the same field. This process ensures that the sources are reliable and trustworthy.

Why you should use them:

Information is based on research and expertise
Information is detailed and focused on a narrow topic
The peer-review process (mostly) insures that the information is accurate
They add to a growing understanding of a topic by contributing new ideas

These source types may also be referred to as peer-reviewed article, academic article, or journal article.

Here are some of the best databases to use for finding scholarly articles in music:

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
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Academic Search Premier is a general coverage database providing full-text access to thousands of scholarly journals across a wide range of disciplines, including history, social science, library science, computer science, language and literature, art, education, and life sciences.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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JSTOR is a multi-disciplinary database providing archival access to scholarly journals in the arts, language and literature, history, sciences, and social sciences. Typically, the most recent three to five years of a journal are not available through JSTOR.
WorldCat This link opens in a new window
The world's largest library catalog; contains records from over 9,000 libraries around the world.

Finding Reference Resources

Reference resources are great sources to provide you with background information or context for a topic. These resources can be dictionaries, encyclopedias, guides, handbooks, etc.

Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
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Oxford Music Online is a comprehensive music reference resource providing access to Grove Music Online, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, and The Oxford Companion to Music. Content includes composer biographies, music theory terms and concepts, information about regional and cultural styles, and much more. Oxford Music Online also offers multimedia content, including hundreds sound files and thousands of images, including photographs and notation examples.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
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A one-stop reference source featuring information from encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, and more. Includes images, video, audio pronunciation of terms, maps, data tables, quotations, citation assistance. Subjects include art, biography, quotations, technology, medicine, and more.

Finding Multimedia

Multimedia resources are essential when researching within music. The following are some selected resources that can connect you with multimedia sources:

Films On Demand This link opens in a new window
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Films on Demand offers state-of-the-art streaming for over 6,000 available educational titles. The films cover a wide range of subject areas and disciplines, ranging from the Arts, Music and Humanities to the Natural Sciences and Business. Easily cite videos using the built-in citation generator and share links to video clips on the go. Create an account to make playlists and save your progress for later.
Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Oxford Music Online is a comprehensive music reference resource providing access to Grove Music Online, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, and The Oxford Companion to Music. Content includes composer biographies, music theory terms and concepts, information about regional and cultural styles, and much more. Oxford Music Online also offers multimedia content, including hundreds sound files and thousands of images, including photographs and notation examples.

Web Resources

Archival Sound Recordings (British Library): NOTE: December 2023, the British Library's digital resources are down due to a cybersecurity breach. Digital access to selected recordings from the British Library Sound Archive. U.S. researchers can search all recordings on the site, listen to recordings where copyright permits (currently over 22,900 items), and view notes and tags added by other users.

Classical Cat: Free MP3 recordings of compositions across the world

Internet Archive's Audio Collection: The incredible Internet Archive contains thousands of audio tracks, recorded concerts, and more. This is a fantastic, historically-oriented resource.

Live Music Archive (Internet Archive): A community committed to providing the highest quality live concerts in a lossless, downloadable format. Preserves and archives as many live concerts as possible for current and future generations to enjoy. "All music is from trade-friendly artists and is strictly non-commercial, both for access here and for any further distribution."

Library of Congress: National Jukebox: At launch, the Jukebox includes more than 10,000 recordings made by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1901 and 1925. Jukebox content will be increased regularly, with additional Victor recordings and acoustically recorded titles made by other Sony-owned U.S. labels, including Columbia, OKeh, and others.

RadiOM: Cutting-edge music from all periods, from the Baroque to modern sound poetry, from San Francisco radio station KPFA-FM, 1959-2005

RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America): "Since 1958, the RIAA has been giving awards for best-selling music and spoken word records and albums: gold (500,000 albums sold), platinum (one million), multi-platinum (two million), and diamond (10 million). Search the database by title, artist, label, format, category, and award."

Spotify: Spotify offers both a free and subscription service which allows users to create playlists, browse artists, and stream audio from a number of devices.

Finding Open Educational Resources (OER)

What are Open Educational Resources?

Open Educational Resources (OER) are online (in most cases) resources that are openly licensed or in the public domain and are free for legal public use. OERs can come in many forms: textbooks, videos, online modules, assignments, etc.

Visit the Open Educational Resources Research Guide for more information

If you have any questions about Open Educational Resources please contact the library!

Where to find OERs

MERLOT: MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) is a curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed and used by an international education community.

OER Commons: From the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, the OER Commons offers OER for the primary through post-secondary levels.

OASIS

OpenStax CNX: An OER collection offered by Rice University. Browse by subject, and use the Type filter to the left to browse only books.

Featured Music History OERs

Music: Its Language, History, and Culture

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century

Understanding Music: Past and Present

Musicians' Mobilities and Music Migrations in Early Modern Europe: Biographical Patterns and Cultural Exchanges

Popular History of the Art of Music

Finding Web Resources:

Library of Congress: Music Treasures Consortium: The Music Treasures Consortium provides online access to the world's most valued music manuscripts and print materials, held at the most renowned music archives, in order to further research and scholarship.

Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology: From the American Musicology Society

Music Research Resources Online: Guide from UCLA Libraries

IMSLP: Petrucci Music Library: Database of Public Domain Music