Music and Dance Orientation
Objective: Locate and access books, dictionaries, handbooks, current journal articles and other publications for your research projects. You will be instructed on how to search the online catalog. Instructions to search electronic databases relevant to your project will be given.
Outcome: You should be able to successfully search online databases to access desired materials at UIW. These strategies will be transferable to other libraries.
Step 1: Locate background information for your research.
Step 2: Locate books and other publications on the online catalogs.
Step 3: Access citations, abstracts and the full text of journal articles.
Step 1: Locate background information for your research. Encyclopedias, dictionaries and handbooks have articles that summarize topics. Reference books have an R before the call number. The Reference Section is located to the right of the Reference Desk on the first floor. Here is a very brief bibliography of suggested titles available in the Reference Section, for more titles search the online catalog. (See Step 2.)
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians located in our databases. This is the most useful reference source for music. The library has a subscription to the online edition that also incorporates New Grove Dictionary of opera and New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. You can access this source through the list of databases on the library homepage.
The library also has print copies of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001) in 29 volumes: R 780.3 N532, New Grove Dictionary of opera (1992) in 4 volumes: R 782.103 N532, New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2002) in 3 volumes: R 781.6503 N532, New Grove Dictionary of American Music (1986) in 4 volumes: R 781.773 N532, and New Grove Dictionary of Musical instruments (1984) in 3 volumes: R 781.91 N532.
Some other useful reference sources in music and dance are:
- Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1991): R 780.920 B168b.
- Biographical Dictionary of Dance (1982): R 920 C678b.
- Career Opportunities in the Music Industry (2000): R 780.23 F456c.
- Dance words (1995): R 792.803 P937d.
- Encyclopedia of the Musical Theater (2001): R 782.8103 G211e.
- Guide to Research in Music Education (1993): R 780.7 P541g.
- Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music (1996): R 780.920 H339.
- Harvard Dictionary of Music (2003): R 780.3 H3392
- Garland Encyclopedia of World Music (1998): R 780.3 G233 (in 10 volumes
and 9 compact discs: CD-0231 in audiovisual collection). - Music Business Handbook and Career Guide (2001): 780.23 B315m.
- Music Reference and Research Materials: an annotated bibliography (1988): R 016.78 D835m.
- Music since 1900 (2001): R 780.904 S634m.
- Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers (1994): R 780.920 N884.
- Oxford Dictionary of Dance (2000): R 792.803 C887o.
- Oxford Dictionary of Music (1994): R 780.3 K360.
- Oxford History of Western Music/ Richard Taruskin (2005) in 6 volumes: R780.9 T196o
Step 2: Locate books. WebVoyáger-Endeavor. The library catalog lists all the books, music scores, and audiovisual materials (CDs, audiocassettes, videocassettes, DVDs, slides, CD-ROMs, and vinyl phono records or LPs) owned by the UIW Library. There are several searchable indexes in the online library catalog. Click on the pull-down menu and select the appropriate index: Author, Title, Subject and Call Number. You can limit the results to sound recordings or video recordings medium or music scores as type of item option. Instruction for the Telnet version of the catalog is available if needed.
In case the library does not have a book in its collection, you may use the ILL (Interlibrary Loan) service to receive the book from another library. Ask the reference librarian to help you to use the ILL service.
Step 3: Locate journal articles:
A. In case you know which music journal you are looking for, UIW Library has access to over 60 music journals full-text. Click on “Journals” On the library's main page. Choose “Music, Dance, Drama & Film” category under “Browse Journals by Subject” in the journals search page. You can look at the music journal titles by clicking on any one of the subjects. Clicking on any title takes you to the volumes of that journal that the library has full-text access to.
B. In case you are searching for a subject in music, the library has access to RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, the most comprehensive music database in the world. This database covers over 10,000 music journals from around the world with over half a million records. Remember that this database has citations and abstracts to articles only and you have to use ILL (Interlibrary Loan) service to receive the full texts of articles AFTER you are sure the library does not have access to the full text in its print journal holdings. Of course, RILM will show you the availability of full-text articles to the journals the library has access to online through other databases.
