FOR JAZZ, AS IN MANY OTHER FIELDS, RESEARCH INVOLVES READING ARTICLES IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS OR OTHER SCHOLARLY COLLECTIONS. The best way to begin your search for articles is to search in MUSIC-SPECIFIC electronic article databases.
The ones the library has are Music Index, RILM, and RIPM. They cite and link to full text of many online articles, and cite many articles only available in print versions. You can access the databases from this guide. You can also access them from the library home page by clicking the Databases tab and entering the title of whichever one you want in the search box.
As you use our music-specific databases to identify articles pertinent to your research, if full text is not provided, then search the sources of these articles in our online catalog discover.library.unt.edu to see if we have them. The sources to search will usually be journal titles, but may also be book titles. If you want the best or most relevant articles, you may need to come to the library to access print journals or print books of essays.
Please note: The databases listed below are products to which our library subscribes. If you are not on a campus computer, you must go in through our website, library.unt.edu to get the free access to which all UNT people are entitled. Authorized UNT users are allowed to access all of our subscription databases remotely by providing EUIDs and passwords.
MUSIC ARTICLE DATABASES
The following list is in order of importance for jazz research:
Indexes hundreds of music journals and magazines from many different countries, and provides full text of many articles. The database covers the years from 1970 to the present, but it originated as a print publication in 1949. It has always included all kinds of music, so it is particularly important for jazz research. Print issues not included in the database (1949-1969) are available on the music reference shelves.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
A vast international bibliography of scholarly writings on music and related disciplines. It covers music journals and other scholarly writings such as books of essays. It began as a print publication in 1967, providing citations and abstracts of articles. The database now has full text of over 300,000 articles. Although its former focus was historical musicology, it now includes fields such as jazz and popular music.
Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals 1800-1950. Published through the International Musicological Society, International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres, and UNESCO’s International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies. This full-text database is similar in purpose to RILM, but covers a different time period. Its jazz-related articles from European and Latin American journals are notable.
Full text of many historically significant American jazz journals and magazines
IMPORTANT NEWS: Issues of Down Beat from 1934-1963 are available electronically for the first time ever through this database.
ENCYCLOPEDIA
The electronic version of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, incorporating the important New Grove Dictionary of Jazz
MULTI-DISCIPLINARY RESOURCES:
Full text of journal articles from a large number of disciplines; provides backfiles of articles from years past for many important journals in music
VERY IMPORTANT:
A vast online catalog citing items owned by thousands of libraries around the world, with information on which libraries own them; includes entries for musical scores and sound recordings; cites journal holdings, but does not provide article access.
Use this resource to initiate inter-library loan requests for books and scores we do not have. When you find an entry for a specific item you need, click on the ILL link you will find there to launch your request with our inter-library loan department.
Few libraries lend sound recordings due to their fragility. However, it is permissible to request them in case a lender can be found.
For anyone familiar with OCLC, WorldCat is the OCLC Online Union Catalog.
This is not a full-text database.
Please note: There is also a free version of WorldCat at www.worldcat.org
If you use the free WorldCat on a UNT computer, it will include links to our inter-library loan service.
If you enter your ZIP code on the free WorldCat, it will tell you how many miles you would have to travel to the libraries that have the items you want.
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (electronic version of earlier print resource Dissertation Abstracts)
Bibliographic citations for doctoral dissertations and master's theses in all fields completed at numerous accredited colleges and universities worldwide, with emphasis on U.S. schools; abstracts included from 1980 forward; now includes full text of over one million dissertations.
Database providing full-text journal coverage for thousands of journals in diverse academic disciplines, including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies. Useful for inter-disciplinary research.