Find Music resources
Find background information on your topic to help you begin to understand the context around your topic (the who, what, when, where, and why), as well as the vocabulary typically used in the discipline. Context will also help you narrow the topic to a more manageable size and direct you to where to do more specific searches.
Encyclopedias and encyclopedia-style databases (such as those listed below) offer short overviews of a topic and are good places to start.
- Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new windowOnline access to Grove Music Online, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, and The Oxford Companion to Music.
The Harvard Dictionary of MusicCall Number: REF 780.3 H261ra
The Garland Encyclopedia of World MusicCall Number: REF 780.9 G183 v.1-10 (1st floor)
Oxford History of Western MusicCall Number: REF 780.9 T179ox v.1-6 (1st floor)
Greenwood Encyclopedia of Rock HistoryCall Number: REF 781.6603 G856 v.1-6
- Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new windowGrove Music Online, The Oxford Companion to Music, and the Oxford Dictionary of Music.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowJSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. Coverage includes history, economics, political science, demography, mathematics, humanities and social sciences. Some current issues are available now.
- Humanities International Complete This link opens in a new windowFull text of hundreds of journals, books and other published sources from around the world. Covers all aspects of the humanities, with worldwide content pertaining to literary, scholarly and creative thought.
- Arts & Humanities Database This link opens in a new windowFeatures hundreds of titles covering Art, Architecture, Design, History, Philosophy, Music, Literature, Theatre and Cultural Studies.
- Arts & Humanities Citation Index This link opens in a new windowIndex of arts and humanities journals. With link to full text journal articles.
- Business Source Complete This link opens in a new windowJournals, peer-reviewed publications, magazines on a wide range of topics including: marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. Suggested search = "music industry"
- Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new windowHistorical Abstracts covers modern world history (excluding the United States and Canada which are covered in America: History and Life) from 1450 to the present.
Some journals are not included in our general databases, but you can search them individually. To search one of these journals, click on the title below and select the link in the "Journal Title" column corresponding to the date range that best fits your needs. Then find the option to search within the journal.
- Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new windowNaxos Music Library [NML] is the world´s largest online classical music library. Currently, it offers streaming access to more than 140,000 CDs with more than 2,300,000 tracks of both standard and rare repertoire. Over 800 new CDs are added to the library every month.
- Academic Video Online (AVON) This link opens in a new windowOver 68,000 titles spanning a wide range of subjects: anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more. AVON includes a variety of video material with curricular relevance: documentaries, interviews, feature films, performances, news programs and newsreels, demonstrations, and raw footage.
- Films on Demand Video Collection This link opens in a new windowThousands of high quality videos on business & economics, health & medicine, humanities & social sciences, and science & mathematics, as well as travel and fitness programming, home and how-to videos, indie films, and popular music performances. Includes Oscar, Emmy and Peabody award winning documentaries, interviews, instructional and vocational training videos, historical speeches and newsreels.
- National JukeboxMore than 10,000 early-20th-century recordings from the Library of Congress.
- Videos about musicThere are over 1,000 videos about music in the library system and many are online.
- AllMusic.comComprehensive resources about albums, bands, musicians and songs
- American Vernacular Music Manuscripts, ca. 1730-1910Handwritten music manuscripts by common Americans contain primary and direct evidence of their musical preferences during a particular time and in a particular place
- Beethovenhaus Bonn. Digital ArchivesContains the unique collections of the Beethoven-Haus: Music manuscripts, first editions, letters and pictures and many recordings.
- Brubeck Oral History ProjectInterviews with Dave and Iola Brubeck (2007)
- Cultural Equity sound recordingsSound recordings of folk music traditions from around the world; includes thousands of songs and interviews recorded by Alan Lomax
- Digital Mozart EditionThe Mozart complete works edition (Neue Mozart-Ausgabe) in digital form.
- Global Music ArchiveA multi-media reference archive and resource center for traditional and popular song, music, and dance of Africa and the Americas.
- International Music Scores Library (IMSLP)IMSLP attempts to create a virtual library containing all public domain musical scores, as well as scores from composers who are willing to share their music with the world without charge.
- Jazz ArchiveVideotaped interviews with jazz musicians, arrangers, writers and critics
- Jazz Musician DatabaseSearch by musician or by instrument; from All About Jazz
- John Cage Unbound: a living archiveAn online record of John Cage's work and its evolving impact on music and performance.
- The Metroplitan OperaOpera synopses, historical pictures, timelines and facts. The MetOpera Database includes details on all performances.
Search for information in the library system
Search Belk Library's online system to find both library materials and articles in our databases. Use the search box below to do a basic search on library materials and databases.
Interlibrary loan (from other libraries)
Can't find a book or article through Belk Library subscriptions? Use our free Interlibrary Loan service and we'll get it for you from another library.