Course resource help for Music

This list contains details of electronic databases available to Oxford Brookes staff and students on the web. First listed are the databases that allow you to search for references for journal articles and other publications in your subject area. Some databases provide an indexing service only, some also provide abstracts (summaries) and others are full text. For more information on using these services see the How to search catalogues and databases page.

Also listed in this section are databases for:

• specialist information
• reference sources
• newspapers (a source of reviews)
• online archives and
• audio-visual databases.

Note: Databases are usually available on and off-campus. Most will prompt you to log in with your Brookes ID and password. The Library Electronic Resources pages provide details of passwords for resources not covered by this.

RILM abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text

Comprehensive bibliography of writings about music. Covers the whole range of musical literature with over one million publications from the early 19th century to the present on traditional music, popular music, and classical music. Also good for digital and all aspects of soundtracks for film and television. EBSCO.

Academic Search Complete

Multi-disciplinary database for academic articles, reports and conference proceedings. Full text access to more than 5,800 scholarly publications, including more than 5,350 peer-reviewed journals. Coverage includes media arts, with key journals in film, computing, and music. EBSCO.

Art Full Text

Full-text of articles from over 300 journals dating back to 1995; also indexing and abstracting of over 600 periodicals and 13,000 art dissertations; and indexing of 200,000 art reproductions providing examples of styles and art movements, including work by emerging artists. A key, comprehensive source for the visual arts covering fine, decorative and commercial art, folk art, photography, film, and graphic design. EBSCO.

Communication & Mass Media Complete

Full-text links to over 450 journals and indexing and abstracting for over 770. Covers fields of media studies, film studies, communications, advertising, and new media. Particularly good for journalism, photojournalism and the social aspects of photography. EBSCO.

British Education Index

Covers mostly British and European Education journals, as well as some research reports and conference papers. Lots of the articles (not all) have the full text available. EBSCO.

Historical Abstracts

Covers the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada), with references to articles, books and other publications from 1950 onwards; contains quite extensive abstracts for most entries; and links to journal articles. EBSCO.

Performing Arts Periodicals Database

Key database for articles on film. Also includes computer games and television. ProQuest.

JSTOR

Full-text articles from a wide range of academic journals, including some key music, film and photography journals. JSTOR does not give access to issues which are less than 3-5 years old but is very useful for older journal articles. Clearing cookies often helps if you have trouble using JSTOR.

Rock's Backpages

Rock's Backpages is a database of rock music writing and journalism, with material dating from the early 1960s to the present day. It offers full text access to articles, reviews, and interviews. The database also includes Mp3 audio files of interviews.

Naxos Music Library

A classical music listening service

Oxford Music Online

Contains the online version of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, a comprehensive music encyclopedia.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

An illustrated collection of articles providing the life stories of over 65,000 people who have shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to those who died in recent years. Includes composers, musicians, singers and conductors.

Lexis+

The News tab of this legal database gives full-text access to regional and national newspapers including the Guardian, Independent,Times and Daily Telegraph. It is an excellent source for reviews, film reviews, and arts news. It does not include images. Click on 'Content' under the search box on the homepage, then choose Newspapers.

The John Johnson Collection

18th, 19th and early 20th century ephemera that includes playbills, sheet music covers, programs, press releases and portrait prints. ProQuest.

Nineteenth Century British Library Newspapers

Access to the full text of a wide variety of national and regional British newspapers from the 19th century. Gale. 

Nineteenth century UK periodicals, series 1

Access to digital editions of nearly 100 periodicals, including many full runs, published between 1800 and 1900. Series 1 relates to new readerships and covers titles aimed at women and children as well as topics such as sport and leisure, humour and satire. The associated Topic Guide includes a chronology and useful essays on the relevant readership groups and subject themes. Gale.

Seventeenth-eighteenth century Burney Collection newspapers

17th and 18th century pamphlets, proclamations, newsbooks and newspapers published in England, Ireland and Scotland, plus a selection of papers from British colonies in the Americas and Asia. Newspapers include the London Chronicle, the London Morning Penny Post and the British Chronicle. Gale.

The Guardian and The Observer (1791-2003)

Full text facsimile archive, good for reviews, advertisements and obituaries. ProQuest.

Times Digital Archive

The complete digital edition of The Times newspaper, 1785-2019, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations. Gale.

Factiva

A multi-use, international news database covering national and regional newspapers, trade  and professional journals, company profiles and share data, and transcripts of world radio broadcasts. Covers 152 countries in 22 languages. Covers US newspapers and entertainment magazines such as Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety; good for film reviews. Includes images from Reuters.

Box of Broadcasts (BoB)

This service gives you access to thousands of recorded radio and TV programmes including, for example, Radio 1 and Radio 3.  It allows you to record programmes which will then be stored on the database. On the database choose Archive to search for programmes. You can also search for playlists and create your own.

The library subscribes to both print and online journals relevant to Music. There are also some open access journals online. Find them in these ways:

• The best way to find individual journal articles, relevant to your topic, from a range of publications is to use a Database, see section above.
• Journals for Media Arts is an annotated list of the library’s print journals relevant to your subject, and includes some ejournals.
• Browzine is an excellent way to find ejournals in your field and stay-up-to-date with the latest issues.
• LibrarySearch provides details of all the print and ejournals the Library subscribes to. Use the Journal titles tab or filter results to journals.
• See the library’s journal page for more information.
• A number of free online Music journals are listed in the Internet section below.

Find all our books and ebooks using LibrarySearch. Search, and then select 'Book' from the filters menu on the left. You can further limit your search to 'eBook' if you want.

You can also:

• Browse a list of newly acquired books for Music.
• Explore Module reading lists: helpful recommendations from your lecturers.

Print books

LibrarySearch shows call numbers so you can find specific books on the shelves. If you'd like to browse, the printable guide at the top of this page gives some helpful call numbers to visit. For example, Music books are shelved in the 780s, but many other books of interest will be found elsewhere in the Library.

There are maps on each floor in the staircase area showing which call numbers are in which zones. You can also download a library floorplan (PDF).  Oversize books are shelved separately near the book sequence. The Short Loan Collection next to the welcome desk contains books in heavy demand.

See also: How to borrow and return items.

E-books

• O'Reilly Safari Learning Platform  : a collection of e-books, videos, tutorials (Learning Paths) and Case Studies on various aspects of information technology. The selection includes desktop publishing, digital media, e-commerce, programming, IT management and business applications. O'Reilly titles can also be found via LibrarySearch. Access with Brookes login. 
• EBooks Central :  a collection of academic e-books for a range of subjects, including many business books. Individual titles appear on LibrarySearch. Access with Brookes login.
• Open Research Library and this list on Project Muse are examples of Open Access e-books, which are becoming increasingly available.

The Library's Ebooks page gives further information.

There are a large number of Music resources available on the Internet, just a few selected sites are listed below. There are many other useful and relevant sites available. Please evaluate web sources carefully.

Online scores

• IMSLP / Petrucci Music Library - a large virtual library of music scores which are in the public domain (some of the scores are not available in the UK).
• Boosey & Hawkes Online Scores (requires registration)

Specific types of music - a selection of websites

• Sound and Music - for contemporary British music
• Operabase - information about more than 27.000 operas performed since 2002
• Soundtrack.net - the art of film and television music - film and television soundtrack information and reviews
• English Folk Dance and Song Society

Libraries

• Cecilia - a searchable guide to music collections in archives, libraries and museums in the UK and Ireland.
• Oxford Music Library - printed music, books, CDs, DVDs and performance sets. Part of the public library service.
• Vaughan Williams Memorial Library

Other resources

• BBC Music
• Concert Programmes Database - a database of collections of concert programmes held in European libraries, archives and museums
• Encore! - union catalogue of sets of performance music in UK libraries 
• Europeana Music - explore 324,662 music recordings, pieces of sheet music and other music items from across Europe
• The Festival Calendar - guide to UK summer music festivals
• Julian Wagstaff Online Catalogue - recordings, scores, instrumental parts, press reviews and programme notes for the publicly available works of this composer.
• Live Music Exchange - live music research hub. Last upated in 2021 but includes archive of resources.
• Musical Instrument Museums Online - information on musical instruments held in public collections worldwide
• Music-scores.com - a classical sheet music service
• Open Research Library - a single access point for open access e-books from a range of publishers. Particularly good for the arts and humanities.
• The Full English - digital archive of English traditional music and dance 
• RISM – Répertoire International des Sources Musicales. an online catalogue of musical sources – manuscripts, printed music, writings about music and libretti – that are held in libraries, archives, monasteries, schools and private collections around the world.
• RIdIM – Répertoire International d’Iconographie Musicale documents visual culture that is related to music, dance and the dramatic arts

The library has thousands of DVDs and CDs. If you don’t have a DVD Player, you can borrow an external DVD drive from the library welcome desk to plug into the USB port of your computer. The bulk of our DVDs are shelved around 791, but there are many others shelved throughout the collection. They are discoverable on LibrarySearch. Run the search, then use the format filter on the left of the results page to see just DVDs.

If the film you are looking for is not available on BOB, or on DVD, we may still be able to help. Please contact the academic liaison librarian.

CDs can be played on the DVD players, alternatively there is a CD player available, next to the window, close to the CDs on level 4 zone D.

Naxos Music Library (NML) is the world´s largest online classical music library. Currently, it offers streaming access to more than 187,400 CDs with more than 2,878,400 tracks of both standard and rare repertoire. An average of 1,150 new CDs are added to the library every month. It is a scholarly resource that also includes background information such as libretti and synopses, work analyses and details and over 40,000 composer and artist biographies.

You will need a password to access the Naxos Music Library. Passwords are given only to music students and staff. The password will be changed frequently - contact Saffron Shore at sshore@brookes.ac.uk if you need to know what the current password is.

Please remember to log out every time you finish using the service. If you do not click on the logout button, you may have problems accessing the service again.

Only four people may access the Naxos Music Library at any one time. Please use the service for academic purposes only during semesters.

NML can be accessed from any computer, anywhere, anytime. With the iPhone/iPod and Android mobile apps, subscribers can also access the service on the go, and the HTLM5 player can stream music though the standard internet connection of most phones and tablets. Once logged in to NML select the Mobile App tab for more information.