The Ohio State University

Indexes to music periodicals : Music-specific databases

• Music Index. A comprehensive subject-author guide to articles—on popular music as well as classical—in some 850 music periodicals in 40 countries. Cites book reviews, obituaries, and news and articles about music, musicians, and the music industry. The Music Index has been available in print since 1949. In December 2008, the online database contained c. 1.4 million records from 1973 to the present. It is updated quarterly, and about 100,000 new records are added annually. Some backfile data from the period 1962-1972 is also included. To simultaneously search Music Index and RILM or other databases, click "Choose Databases" and make your selection.
• RILM Abstracts of Music Literature. An index (with abstracts) of scholarly music journals, books, dissertations, and other literature. Circa 1967 to the present. RILM covers all types of publications on music, in many media, including books, journals, online resources, research-based sound recordings and films, dissertations, and symposia. Currently RILM grows at a rate of 30,000 records each year. Publications represented originate in 151 countries. Over 500,000 records in 214 languages include title translations into English and abstracts in English; the latter are now supplemented with abstracts in the language of publication. Non-roman writing systems such as Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and Hebrew are represented. Some 10,000 journals are covered. To simultaneously search RILM and Music Index or other databases, click "Choose Databases" and make your selection.
• International Index to Music Periodicals. Provides indexing and abstracts for some 430 international music periodicals from 20 countries, chiefly 1995 to the present. In December 2008 the database included c. 530,000 records, the majority of which index the most recent eight years of publication. More than 200,000 records are from the backfile (up to 1995) and much of this coverage begins with the first issue of the journal run, starting as early as 1874. Some complete journal runs are included, from the first published issue to the most current. Covers both scholarly and popular music journals ranging from International Journal of Music Education, Ethnomusicology, Jazz Education Journal, and Musical Times to Rock and Rap Confidential and Rolling Stone. Topics include music education, performance, ethnomusicology, musical theater, theory, popular music, and composition. Some searchable full-text material.
• Bibliographie des Musikschrifttums online. An international and interactive bibliography of literature on music edited by the Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung Preußischer Kuturbesitz (State Institute of Music Research). Printed volumes — located on the Index Table in the main reading room (ML113 .B5) — cover the period 1950-1988 plus a few years in the 1930s. Publication was suspended during the Second World War.
• RIPM: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals. An international annotated bibliography of writings on musical history and culture, found in music periodicals published in seventeen countries mainly between c. 1800 and 1950, with some additions up to 1962. RIPM indexes the content of complete runs of journals, including articles, reviews, news columns, miscellaneous items, surveys of the press, bibliographies, iconography, and advertising, plus several thousand English-language translations of foreign documents. Approximately 20,000 records are added annually.
  

• JSTOR. Multidisciplinary full-text database covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities, including important music journals. The JSTOR Music Collection contains the complete back runs of 64 titles dedicated to scholarly research and theory in the field of music, including journals published in the Netherlands, Croatia, Hungary, Germany, and France.
• Arts & Humanities Citation Index. Multidisciplinary database covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities. Includes many major music journals, though fewer than the databases listed above. Offers cited reference searching, allowing researchers to locate journal articles which cite a specific work, or works by a particular author.

Library catalogs

• OSU Library Catalog. Books, scores, sound recordings, videos available at the Music/Dance Library and other OSU libraries.
• OhioLINK. A combined ("union") catalog of most Ohio college and university libraries. If an item is not available at OSU (not in our online catalog, checked out, etc.), search for it in this database and make an online request to have it sent here. The service is free, and most OhioLINK items arrive in three to five business days.
• OCLC WorldCat. If you cannot locate an item in our online catalog or in the OhioLINK catalog, search this union catalog of thousands of libraries around the world. Many items can be requested by interlibrary loan, and you can make the request on line. If you need help, ask any staff member for assistance.
• Additional library catalogs

• ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. Contains citations for dissertations and theses done at U.S., Canadian and some foreign institutions. Free PDFs of almost all dissertations done since 1997.
• Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology. An international database of bibliographic records for completed dissertations and new dissertation topics in the fields of musicology, music theory, and ethnomusicology, as well as in related musical, scientific, and humanistic disciplines. Contains approximately 13,000 records, including the contents of the earlier printed editions of Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology and supplements contributed by musicological centers throughout the world.

Online music reference works

• New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Oxford Online
• Oxford Companion to Music/Oxford Dictionary of Music
  
• Themefinder
• Folksong Index (Oberlin College Libraries and Sing Out!)

Other noteworthy sites

• Neue Mozart Ausgabe (complete)
• RIdIM (International database of musical iconography)
• Hofmeister XIX — online searchable version of the Hofmeister Monatsberichte for the years 1829-1900
• British Library Integrated Catalog — The 62-volume catalog of printed music held by the British Library was published in book form in the 1980s. Its entries have been incorporated into the online Integrated Catalog.
• Online Bibliography of Music/Dance Reference Sources - Brigham Young University — Includes c. 6,000 bibliographies and reference sources (print and online), some 1,600 of which are annotated with critiques on use, coverage, organization, and pros and cons. Many entries also list published reviews for the corresponding sources. Regularly updated. Includes directories, dictionaries and encyclopedias, periodical indexes and other specialized indexes, bibliographies of music research, repertory guides, thematic catalogs, catalogs of music collections and exhibits, discographies, chronologies, and select histories and guides to music librarianship.

Other online research tools

• By TITLE/SUBJECT