LibGuides: Music and Media Library 101: Databases and Indexes

General Databases

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
- Why search here? Great starting point, with something for every subject!
- What's included? Lots of full-text, mostly peer-reviewed and recent, with some older and popular sources.
Dissertations: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window
- Why search here? You want to read graduate student dissertations and theses on a topic - often giving you extensive bibliographies, and occasionally cutting edge research on new topics.
- What's included? Index of doctoral dissertations and some master's theses from most North American and many European colleges and universities. Starts in 1743. Full text is available for over 1 million, mostly since 1996.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
- Why search here? It’s an excellent tool for scholarly articles and books/chapters from university presses, covering most disciplines.
- What's included? The collection's strength lies in its complete back issues of journal titles covering 75 disciplines, while a weakness is a "moving wall" limiting access to the most recent journal issues - the coverage skews older, so it’s not always a great starting point for researching topics that need to have the most current sources.
New York Times This link opens in a new window
- Why search here? You need primary source material on world news, arts and culture, technology, science and more within the last 40 years.
- What's included? Full-text (but not page images) from the late 2000s to the present.

Music Specific Databases

Bloomsbury Popular Music This link opens in a new window
- Why search here? You’re doing research on popular and world music.
- What's included? Bloomsbury Popular Music provides in-depth analysis of popular music in a global context. It includes Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, the 33 1/3 series of books exploring key albums, and more.
International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance (IBTD) with Full Text This link opens in a new window
- Why search here? You’re doing research on theatre or dance.
- What's included? Performing arts trade publications, magazines, journals and ebooks. The collection includes around 200 journals and magazines and 350 ebooks.
Music Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
- Why search here? You’re doing research on music.
- What's included? An index with full-text and abstracts of articles on music. Includes indexing for music articles and obituaries from the New York Times and The Washington Post. Covers nearly all aspects of music, including scholarly studies and popular trends.
Oxford/Grove Music Online This link opens in a new window
Oxford Music Online is the online gateway for access to the Oxford Dictionary of Music, Grove Music Online, the Oxford Companion to Music, and the Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Undergraduate students should start all of their research with Oxford/Grove Music. Oxford/Grove Music is a dictionary that functions like an encyclopedia, featuring articles from field experts and can generally help you gain a basic understand of a topic or narrow down your research interests.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
- Why search here? You need academic journals in the performing arts.
- What's included? Performing Arts Periodicals Database covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
- Why search here? You need scholarly articles on the humanities and social sciences.
- What's included? Project Muse is a collection of established and longstanding scholarly journals in full-text for humanities and social sciences journals. Strengths of this collection include its caliber of content with historical and the current holdings.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature This link opens in a new window
- Why search here? You’re doing research on music.
- What's included? Abstracts and citations to music scholarship. Sponsored by the International Musicological Society, the International Association of Music Libraries, and the International Council on Traditional Music.

Databases for Related Fields

DePauw Digital Library This link opens in a new window
- Why search here? You need access to digitized primary and secondary DePauw University and/or Indiana United Methodist Church history sources, such as letters, diaries, scrapbooks, newspapers, photographs, and more.
- What's included? Contains a variety of digitized materials spanning the history of DePauw University, Putnam County, and Indiana United Methodism.
GenderWatch This link opens in a new window
- Why search here? You’re researching topics about gender issues.
- What's included? Articles from journals, magazines, newspapers (some working papers & dissertations), published since 1970. Almost all are full text. Gender studies, men's studies, & women's studies.
APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
- Why search here? You're doing research in Psychology or Neuroscience.
- What's included? Coverage back to 1600s, from 2300 journals.
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
- Why search here? You’re writing about a topic in sociology or related fields.
- What's included? International academic literature of sociology and related disciplines, including the companion file Social Services Abstracts, which is current research focused on social work & human services. Mostly from 1990s+.

Music and Media Library 101: Databases and Indexes

Accessing Online Resources Off Campus

General Databases

Music Specific Databases

Databases for Related Fields