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Web Starting Points for Music
Strategy 1: Browse a "Meta" Music Site
Here are organized gateways to Web sites about music. Use them to find organizations, scholarly centers, free databases, indexes, scanned music, composers, instruments, genres, regions, current events, and more.
- DW3: Classical Music Resources (Duke University) Defunct fall 2007.
- Very good starting point for music.
- Well organized and has a search engine.
- Sibelius Academy: Music Resources
- University of Washington Music Reference Desk Home Page (especially lower right corner)
- Worldwide Internet Music Resources (Indiana University)
- WWW Sites of Interest to Musicologists (from the American Musicological Society)
- Yahoo! Entertainment: Music
Strategy 2: Use Our "Library Research" Menus
Most of the Library Research menus (to the left) incorporate more specific Web resources (e.g., Copyright, Dissertations, Scores, etc.)
Examples:
For scores on the Web, use the Find Music Materials menu (select Scores).
For copyright links, use the Other Research Tools menu.
To find Music Libraries Elsewhere, use the Other Research Tools menu.
Strategy 3: Google (or use another Internet Search Tool)
You already know how to type in names, titles, or topics. Also look for broader Web sites or indexes that may contain the item you need.
Example: to find a particular bagpipe
tune, look for a bagpipe tune index.
Example: to find a traditional song, look for
sheet music collections.
Example: for citations on shape-note singing, try shape note bibliography.
Remember
- Think broadly. Searching for your precise item or topic may fail, but identifying an appropriate collection may work. Example: browsing or searching for a civil war band music online index or digitization project may find a collection that contains the musical work you need.
- Assess the quality and authoritativeness of free Web sites.
More promising research sites often meet some of these criteria:
- contributors are proven scholars, professionals, or experts in the field;
- site is sponsored by a scholarly or professional organization, or an educational institution (.edu);
- site shows signs of permanence or longevity and is regularly updated;
- site has clear editorial standards, scope notes, and criteria for inclusion;
- more rigorous sites have peer review and/or criteria defining excellence.
Less promising research sites often have
- commercial motives rather than intellectual (tipoff: .com, emphasis on ads, sales);
- authors with unclear, questionable, or unidentifiable qualifications;
- information is lifted from other (older) sources;
- amateur or student projects (quality widely varies; treat with caution);
- little longevity;
- these sites can be useful in the appropriate settings but treat with caution.
This page was found at http://www.lib.uconn.edu/music/web.html