Research Strategies for course assignments
Try some of the following easy techniques to power your assignment research.
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Google Book Search The Library Catalogue - University Collections Music Databases and SuperSearch Getting access to your journal titles Citation Style and Writing Guides in Music |
Course Reading Lists
The best place to start reading for course assignments is the course reading lists provided by your lecturer/supervisor. Copies of the most popular books for each subject are most likely on Reserve Desk and can be found using the Reserve Lists search option in the library catalogue. Some course examples are:
Music in Australia (740-265) | Music Techniques 3 1 | Nineteenth century music (740-201)
Encyclopaedias and Dictionaries, including Biographical Dictionaries
- Dictionaries and thesauri can assist in defining and clarifying concepts and terminology as well as useful keywords to use for searching additional materials.
- Encyclopaedias can provide you with an introduction to a composer or topic, offer detailed articles written by experts and provide good starting points to further research.
To locate encyclopedias for specific subjects, do a keyword search in the online catalogue for your subject followed by the word "encyclopedias.". For example: music and encyclopedias
Examples are :
-
Grove
Music Online (restricted
staff and students - Univesity of Melbourne only)
Includes New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians / 2nd ed.,New Grove Dictionary of Opera and the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz supplemented with additional material such as websites and audio files. Guide.
-
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music UniM Music REF 780.9 GARL v.1-v.10
/ advisory editors, Bruno Nettl and Ruth M. Stone ; founding editors, James Porter and Timothy Rice.
New York : Garland Pub., 1998-2002.An excellent resource as each volume spans a particular country or region. The summary chapters also offer a wealth of detail as well as further references for reading. Vol.10 includes further bibliographies, discographies, general glossary and a detailed index to this multi-volume encyclopedia.
- The Harvard dictionary of music UniM Music REF 780.3 HARV
/ edited by Don Michael Randel / 4th ed. Cambridge, MA : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003, c1986.
- Oxford
Reference Online : Performing Arts (restricted
staff and students - Univesity of Melbourne only)
- includes: The Oxford Dictionary of Dance ; The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music ; The Oxford Companion to Music ;
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera ; Who's Who in Opera ; The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre.
Use the Bibliographies of your key articles for related material
At this stage you will have a good idea of the topic including the keys points, and some of the relevant reading which often includes further references and bibliographies for further reading. Use the library catalogue and SuperSearch to find these materials in our collections.
Browsing library collections - important call numbers
Browsing through the collection is highly recommended as reading the printed contents pages and book indexes offer more detailed information and indexing than library catalogues allow. Knowing the shelf arrangement makes it easy to find the best place to browse the shelves.
Even from home, you can use the library catalogue to virtually browse the book shelves. Use the CALL NUMBER search option. For example, try a call number search using 780.9033 - Music History : ca.1750-1825.
There are two sequences of Dewey numbers in the Music Library, the general and folio sequence for taller books. Use the above numbers to browse both sequences.
Google Book Search
Google Book Search lets you search the full text of books to find ones that are most useful to you. From your results, "you'll be able to see everything from a few short excerpts to the entire book. Click on a book title and you'll see the Snippet View which, like a catalog, shows information about the book plus a few snippets - a few sentences of your search term in context. You may also see the Sample Pages View if the publisher or author has given us permission or the Full Book View if the book is out of copyright. "
Use Advanced Book Search option to focus and control your search and Google Book Search Help will explain your options.
Many of the books found using Google Book Search are available to you in our collections and are listed in the University Library catalogue.
The University Library Collections, including Victorian College of the Arts Collections
Search the library catalogue by title, author, keywords, subject, or the other indexes available.
- Searching
by Keyword.
If you are new to a topic, start with a keyword search to find some initial resources. Search using any distinctive words that describe the information that you seek. This may include a composer name, a type of music, or even the name of a country or state. For example:
- mbuti
- Zaire and music
- Beethoven and Sonatas and Analysis
- Brahms and Songs and Analysis
- Mozart and piano and concertos and analysis
- Searching
by Author and/or Searching
by Title.
If you know the name of an author or the title of the work, then search by Author or by Title. Once you have some books in hand, these resources will often provide bibliographies -- lists of books and articles that will allow you to discover what else is available on a subject. Another strategy is to use the call numbers of given works from your course lists to find other works on similar topics by doing a search by Call Number.
- Searching
by subject
A very precise way of searching as you must search using Library of Congress Subject Headings - these are controlled words that have been assigned to describe the subject and may not be the same as your keywords. It may be useful to do a keyword search first, then check the Subject field in records retrieved to see the subject headings used in the catalogue.
Read through some Catalogue searching tips to improve your searching skills or contact us for further assistance.
Music Databases and SuperSearch
Databases are the best way of identifying relevant journal articles and other useful materials. Many are listed on SuperSearch our comprehensive gateway to these resources and the sub-category Musicology is recommended. The following selection will provide a good start:
Grove Music Online - Encyclopedia. Instructions & Guide
Try Smart Searching guides to learn better searching techniques. For each database, refer to online help or the database guide where available or contact us for further assistance.
Getting access to your journal titles
Use the following strategies to find the articles in your journal title - online or in print.
- Start with the list of Music Journals A-Z, Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library Journals Collection.
Includes access to both print and online journal titles.
- SuperSearch,
is the single access point for all e-journals and databases.
- Go to Find E-journal. Browse the alphabetical list, or type the name of a journal you know.
- Select Brief View for displayed journals to see the date range for each e-journal.
- Use
to link directly to the article or catalogue holdings. - Note that
links appear in many of your database search results.
- SIAL : Serials in Australian Libraries
Lists the holdings of more than 450,000 periodical titles held in academic and state libraries around Australia. -
Libraries Australia - Australian National Bibliographic database.
The National Library of Australia's service which provides access to material held in Australian libraries. Also lists journal holdings Australia wide as well as other published sources including books, conference proceedings, theses, reports etc..
Interlibrary Loans & Document Delivery
If you are unable to visit the journal holding library in person, document delivery may be an option. The Interlibrary Loans & Document Delivery service is available to staff and postgraduate students for the retrieval of any material not held by the University of Melbourne Libraries and required for purposes directly related to research at the University.