Basic Music Resources 

• A-Z List of Databases
• A-Z List of Journals
• ILLiad
• E-Reserves
• RefWorks

Advanced Search | I-Share

World Cat Basic Search

Hello. This guide will introduce you to some basic music resources available in the Ames Library at Illinois Wesleyan University.  It includes information on how to locate:

• Books, Printed Music (scores), Recorded Music & Videos
• Streaming audio: Alexander Street Press
• Music Journal Articles
  
• Key Music Information Sources (print & eclectronic)
• Guides to Scholarly Web Sites

See  Finding Music Scores & Recordings for detailed instructions on searching for Music in the Ames Library Catalog.

Search Ames Classic Version Catalog (box at left) for Books, Printed Music (Scores), Music Recordings and Videos owned by IWU.

• Best when searching by title.
• If IWU owns the item you may check it out.
• If IWU does not own the item, use I-Share to check other CARLI libraries to see if it is available. If so, you may request the item. If not, search World Cat option below.

VU Find Version of Catalog: an alternative to the classic version of the Ames Catalog with a more modern look & feel. This is particularly good for subject searching.

Search World Cat (box at left) for books & other materials worldwide.

• Best when searching by title.
• Choose the button for availability.

Music Call Number Ranges (Library of Congress)

• M Printed music (scores)
• ML Literature on music
• MT Musical instruction

Music Online: Listening : a cross-searchable interface for all Music Online: Listening products

Constituent parts:

• American Song (includes African-American Song collection)

• Classical Music Library

• Contemporary World Music

• Jazz Music Library

• Simthsonian Global Sound

DRAM - provides educational communities with on-demand streaming access to CD-quality audio, with complete original liner notes and essays from independent record labels and sound archives including New World Records, CRI, Albany, Innova, Cedille, XI, Pogus, Deep Listening and Mutable Music.

Use Quicklinks A-Z Journals to access holdings information about specific journal titles at the Ames Library

Use Quicklinks A-Z Databases to access of list of journal databases available at the Ames Library

Key Music Journal Databases:

Music Index : 1949 to 2003  ML118.M84 (Ames Library, 3rd floor)

• A subject-author index to articles published in over 670, international music journals.

Music Index  : 1976 to Present

• The online version of Music Index. Includes links to selected Full-Text articles in JStor.

RILM Music Abstracts : 1967 to Present

• The most comprehensive index to articles published in many languages. Indexes journals, as well as books, collections of essays, dissertation abstracts, conference proceedings, etc.

Related Databases:

International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text : 1984 to Present  

• The definitive research tool for the study of theatre and the performing arts including Musical Theatre, Opera, and Dance. Indexes journals, book chapters, collections of essays, and dissertation abstracts.

Pop Culture Universe

• A comprehensive pop culture reference collection for the 1920s-present.  Includes over 250 volumes of full text material, along with images.

Below is a list of general, scholarly information sources on many aspects of music. Several are electronic sources, others are printed sources. Printed sources with "Ref." in the library call number are located in the Reference Collection, on the Entry level of Ames Library. Other items are located in the book stacks on the Third level of Ames Library.

Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Centennial edition:  Ref. ML195.B16 2001

College Music Society Directory:  Ref. ML13.D57 2006-2007

Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, 5th edition (Kennedy)

Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 4th edition (Larkin): ML102.P66 G84 2006 - coverage of popular music of all genres and periods, 1900 to the present

Garland Encyclopedia of World Music:  Ref. ML100.G16 1998 - a scholarly, multi-volume work by geographic region with accompanying audio discs of selected musical examples

Gaylord Music Library Necrology: a database of recent death dates & obituaries of musicians maintained by Gaylord Music Library, WashingtonUniversity, St. Louis, MO

Harvard Dictionary of Music (Randel): Ref. ML100.A64 2003

Historical Sets, Collected Editions, and Monuments of Music: a Gudie to Their Contents (Heyer/Hill):  Ref. ML113.H52 1980

Musical America Worldwide:  Ref. M12.M88 - a key resource for information on music business

Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart:  ML100 .M987 1994 - the benchmark German language encyclopedic work on music

Oxford Music Online: comprises updated, full text of The New Grove Dictionary Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd ed.

New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition (Sadie/Tyrell):  ML100.N48 2001 - print version of the online NGD (see above)

Oxford Companion to Music (Latham)

Oxford Dictionary of Music, 2nd edition rev. (Kennedy)

Reference and Research Materials: an Annotated Bibliography, 5th edition, (Duckles/Reed):  Ref. ML113.D83 1997

Music Style Manuals:

How to Write about Music: RILM Manual of Style (Cowdery): Ref. ML3797.H69 2005

Writing about Music: an Introductory Guide, 4th edition (Wingell): Ref. ML3797.W54 2009

Music Databases and Information Resources (Loeb Music Library, Harvard University)

Worldwide Internet Music Resources (Cook Music Library, Indiana University)