LibGuides: Library Resources for Music Research: Home

Locating Resources

Here is where you will find music resources at the John Vaughan Library:

First floor: Music CDs, DVDs, and class reserve materials are located at the north service desk.
First floor: Reference contains music encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other print resources.
Second floor: The Curriculum Materials Collection has music education textbooks and teacher resources. There are also bound periodicals and government documents.
Third floor: Books, music scores, biographies, criticisms and music education methods books.

For questions on accessing or using these library resources, inquire at the first floor's north service desk or contact Maria Souliotis, who is the Resource Coordinator for Music.

Library of Congress Classification

The John Vaughan Library uses the Library of Congress Classification system. In this system, works of knowledge are sorted into broad subject areas known as classes. Each class is assigned its own letter of the alphabet and is further subdivided into its own subclasses. The Library of Congress Classification system contains 21 classes.

Class "M" represents Music and contains the following subclasses:

M: Printed Music & Scores

ML: Literature on Music

MT: Music Instruction and Study

Library of Congress Classification Outline

Music Publishers

Many publishers specialize in distributing printed music and scores. Below are some of the most notable music publishers whose materials are found in libraries worldwide.

Search Engines and Library Catalog

Department of Music

Contact the Subject Librarian for Music - Maria Souliotis (soulioti@nsuok.edu)

Online Reference

Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia
Indexes over 25,000 records, covering an array of topics. Full text for each record may be easily accessed by double clicking on the topic from the display. The database contains various images, offers brief biographies as well as information in a variety of subject areas. This database is updated annually.
eBooks (Gale)
A database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources. An online library of reference titles for multi-disciplinary research, including texts related to American and world history,
Oxford English Dictionary
English language dictionary.
Oxford Music Online
Access point to Grove Music Online, Oxford Dictionary of Music, and Oxford Companion to Music.
Webster's Dictionary
An online dictionary.

Useful Books & Reference Works

The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music by Bruno Nettl, Ruth M. Stone, James Porter, Timothy Rice
Call Number: ML100 .G16 1998
ISBN: 9780815310846
Publication Date: 2002-03-01
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music is a ten-volume reference work, organized geographically by continent to represent the musics of the world in nine volumes. The tenth volume houses reference tools and descriptive information about the encyclopedia's structure, criteria for inclusion and other information specific to the field of ethnomusicology. An award-winning reference, its contributions are from top researchers around the world who were active in fieldwork and from key institutions with programs in ethnomusicology. GEWM has become a familiar acronym, and it remains highly revered for its scholarship, uncontested in being the sole encompassing reference work with a broad survey of world music. More than 9,000 pages, with musical illustrations, photographs and drawings, it is accompanied by 300+ audio examples.
Harvard Dictionary of Music by Willi Apel
Call Number: ML 100.A64 1969
ISBN: 9780674375017
Publication Date: 1969-08-06
A classic and invaluable reference work. Soon after its initial publication, the Harvard Dictionary of Music by Willi Apel was firmly established as a standard and essential resource for everyone concerned with music. The product of exceptional scholarship, it was praised as being comprehensive, concise, authoritative, scholarly, and enjoyable. For this second edition the dictionary has been thoroughly revised, updated, and substantially enlarged. Containing nearly 1,000 pages of precise and accessible information on all musical subjects, it offers over fifty percent more material than the first edition. It is essential not only to the scholar of music, the professional performer, and the practicing amateur, but to everyone who has ever anticipated the pleasure of a weekly musical broadcast, purchased a favorite recording, or truly enjoyed a concert.
How to write about music : the RILM manual of style by James R. Cowdery
Call Number: eBook (Click link to view)
ISBN: 9781932765069
Publication Date: 2023
Written manual of style. Addresses language issues, written words, and musical problems. This third edition incorporates numerous updates, many of them reflecting developments in writing and publishing over the past 16 years--not least, those involving the online environment. While further editions may be printed in the future, now there will also be an electronic edition that will be continuously updated.
Music Library and Research Skills by Jane Gottlieb
Call Number: ML 3797.G68 2009
ISBN: 9780131584341
Publication Date: 2008-08-11
Jane Gottlieb provides an introductory text for courses in music research, methodology and librarianship. She introduces basic concepts in conducting research, provides sources and shows students how to synthesise their research.
Music Reference and Research Materials by Vincent H. Duckles; Michael A. Keller; Ida Reed
Call Number: REF ML 113.D83 1997
ISBN: 0028708210
Publication Date: 1997-07-25
This text has been the standard guide to source literature of music and contains critically annotated listings of over 3,500 key sources. This comprehensive guide to reference sources is organized into chapters by category of source. The text's organization introduces students to a vast array of sources to include: Dictionaries and Encyclopedias; Histories and Chronologies; Sources of Systematic and Historical Musicology; Bibliographies of Music, Music Literature, and Music Business; Reference Works on Individual Composers and Their Music; Catalogs of Libraries and Musical Instrument Collections; Discographies; Yearbooks; Directories; Electronic Resources.
Oxford History of Western Music by Richard Taruskin
Call Number: REF ML160 .T18 2005
ISBN: 9780195169799
Publication Date: 2005-01-06
Sweepingly ambitious, The Oxford History of Western Music illuminates, through a representative sampling of masterworks, those themes, styles, and currents that give shape and direction to each musical age. Taking a critical perspective that challenges the received wisdom of the field, Richard Taruskin sets the details of music, the chronological sweep of figures, works, and musical ideas, within the larger context of world affairs and cultural history. Written by an authoritative, opinionated, and controversial figure in musicology, The Oxford History of Western Music provides a critical aesthetic position with respect to individual works, a context in which each composition may be evaluated and remembered. Laced with brilliant observations, memorable musical analysis, and a panoramic sense of the interactions between history, culture, politics, art, literature, religion, and music, The Oxford History of Western Music will be essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand this rich and diverse tradition.