| Library Guide - music |
Hello, I'm Lydia Gibbs, the Liaison Librarian for Music. This guide is intended to help you find information sources useful for your music assignments. If you need help with finding and/or accessing any of the resources mentioned in this guide, I will be happy to help. Contact me in the library or as follows:
Email: lydia.gibbs@newman.ac.uk
Tel: 0121 476 1181 ex.1413
The library catalogue is accessible at designated terminals in the library or online via the library homepage.
You can search the catalogue by keyword, title, author or year. The keyword option is especially useful for searching a particular subject as it performs a flexible search.
From the drop-down box on the opening screen of the catalogue, you can also opt to search a particular collection of resources. For example:
• Journals – searches the journal titles available in the library. For references to specific articles you should use the electronic bibliographic databases and online journals.
• School Experience – searches for teaching materials such as lesson plans, topic books, kits and artefacts.
An online help guide to using the catalogue is available (click on the Help tab in the library catalogue), but if you need any further help please ask a member of library staff.
Quick reference sources, which are available in the General Reference Collection in the library and online, can provide a useful starting point for your research. They also provide factual and statistical information, for example on organisations.
The following reference sources may be useful for you as a Music student:
The library subscribes to the following services which can be accessed from the ‘Online Reference and Media Collections’ section of the Electronic Resources page of the library website:
• Britannica Online – Electronic version of this well-established encyclopedia. Also links through to some full-text journal articles on certain topics.
• Oxford Reference Online - Quick reference information. Use it, for example, to find definitions and explanations of musical terminology.
You will find the following in the General Reference Collection:
• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians - shelved at REF 780.3NEW
• Handbook of research on Music Teaching and Learning - shelved at REF 780.7COL
The Library uses the Dewey decimal system to classify and arrange its books by subject. The catalogue will give you the shelf number of the book you need, and tell you if it is in the library or out on loan. The following are some examples of shelf numbers relevant to Music:
| Primary music teaching | 372.87 |
| Secondary music teaching | 375.78 |
| Music | 780 |
| Composers | 780.0711 |
| Music education | 780.7 |
| History of music | 780.9 |
| Styles of music | 781.6 |
| Sacred music | 781.7 |
| Vocal music | 782-783 |
| Instrumental music | 784 |
| Keyboard and percussion instruments | 786 |
| Stringed instruments | 787 |
| Wind instruments | 788 |
Some of the library’s most popular texts are now available to you electronically through our e-book service provided by Dawsonera.
Dawsonera can be accessed from the Electronic Resources E-books section of the page of the library website. You will need to be logged into Athens to access the full-text books which the library has purchased (details can be found in the ‘Athens information’ section of the Electronic Resources page on the library website). Individual titles can also be accessed via the library catalogue.
For some modules you may be required to purchase some or all of the texts from the ‘essential reading’ on your reading lists. You may find the following retailers useful:
Abebooks - Online bookshop especially useful for second hand and out of print books.
Amazon - Online books, often much cheaper than RRP!
Waterstones - Search and buy online or try their branch located on the University of Birmingham Edgbaston campus – they often have textbooks in stock that are difficult to obtain from elsewhere. Telephone them on 0121 472 3034.
Journals are an excellent source of information. They show evidence of wider reading, are important for research and help you to keep informed of any changes and developments in the study of your subject area. They are published more frequently than textbooks, so the information they hold is often more up-to-date.
You can search for journal titles on the library catalogue by selecting ‘journals’ from the drop-down collections box on the search screen. The journal collection is for reference only, so titles should always be accessible. They are shelved alphabetically by title in the Journal room.
Examples of journals that you may find useful for Music are:
British Journal of Music Education (available via Swetswise database)
Music Teacher
Primary Music Today
Sight and Sound
E-journals
The following databases, which are accessible from the Electronic Resources page of the library website, will help you find journal article references and often full-text articles online:
Education Research Complete - A comprehensive UK and international index providing journal article references in the field of Education, including Music teaching.
Humanities International Complete - Provides bibliographic and full-text access to a range of journals including: Music Journal, Music Review and Popular Music and Society.
Project Muse - Indexes a range of music journals, including: American Music, Asian Music, Computer Music Journal and Women and Music.
You will need to be logged into Athens in order to be able to access these resources. Details can be found in the ‘Athens information’ section of the Electronic Resources page on the library website.
Also see the Image and Sound collections, available from the library's Electronic Resources page, useful. These include:
British Library Sound Archive - free archive of more than 46,000 recordings of music and sound. Categories include World and Traditional Music, Jazz and Popular Music..
Intute - With millions of resources available on the Internet, it is difficult to find relevant and appropriate material even if you have good search skills and use advanced search engines. The Intute gateway provides a database of internet resources for Music and an online tutorial specifically for Music students.
From the Useful Websites section, select Music to link to the Intute internet resources database for Music.
Go to :Intute: Virtual Training Suite to access the tutorial for Music students.