Several of our music and other databases are available through the same vendor (Ebsco). This means that you can search in more than one of these databases simultaneously.

1. Go to the Online Research Resources page
2. Do a title search in the "all resources" section for one of the databases you want to search (e.g., Music Index).
3. Once you have found the database, click to enter it.
4. Click on the drop-down menu next to the word "in." (It will already display the name of the database you started in.)
5. Check as many database names as you'd like to search at once.

You could search Music Index and ERIC at the same time for education-related items or you could search MLA International Bibliography and the International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance at the same time for theatre-related items.

You may know that we subscribe to the Classical Music Library streaming audio tool. Now when you search our online catalog, if a recording is available in CML, it will have it's own entry.

Here's a Boolean search for Reger and serenades, limited to "music recordings."

If you click on the title, you get more information about the recording.

You can then click on the link that says "Online Access" to go to the CML tool, where you can click on tracks to play them.

Did you know that we have a large collection of early childhood music resources? You can find them in the library online catalog by doing a phrase search for "early childhood music project.

You might have noticed that the library's online catalog has a new look.

You can now search both the U of I Library Catalog and the IShare Catalog with a user interface called VuFind. You can still search the local U of I Catalog through either the VuFind interface or the Classic interface. However, the IShare Catalog has been completely replaced with VuFind.

Here are a few things you should know to make VuFind easier to use.

1. In the basic search screen, "AND" is assumed, so if you want to combine multiple concepts, just type them all in the field. If you want to use NOT or OR, you have to use the Advanced Search screen and use the dropdowns.

If you have a phrase you want to keep together, use quotation marks, e.g., "folk singing".

2. If you want to search for various forms of a word, use * as the truncation symbol, e.g., symphon* will find symphony and symphonies.

3. To limit by item format, you must use the advanced search feature.

You can still use the word "digital" in your search to help limit to CDs or DVDs, although this is not perfect.

4. On the results screen you will have more options to limit your search. Use the "topics" like you would use LC Subject Headings to determine what an item is about.

5. To see the full contents of an item, you must look at either the "More details" tab, or if there is one, the "Table of Contents" tab.

5. In order to place a request for an item through IShare, you must create a user account in VuFind. Click on the "Login" link at the top right of the screen and then click on "Create a new account."

Placing a request through IShare...you must repeat your search for the item and select "All IShare Libraries" from the drop-down next to the search box. Once you find the item you want, click on the "Request this item" link at the bottom of the location information for a particular library.

6. Features currently unavailable in VuFind:

* Course reserves searching
* Call number searching
* Ability to limit items by library
* Direct export of records to Refworks

**Note: If you are in the old catalog and you click the link to "Find copies in other iShare libraries" it will take you to the LOCAL catalog in VUFind. You then need to select "All iShare Libraries" from the dropdown and repeat the search.

Are you getting the most out of Oxford Music Online? Sure, you know you can keyword search all of New Grove, Grove Opera, and Grove Jazz, but did you know that there are search options that can help you work smarter, not harder?

Do you get search results that look like this? In this example I was looking for an entry about "practicing". Since I didn't know if I would find it under "practice" or "practicing", I tried a basic keyword search using "practic*", which searches for anything that starts with "practic".

That's way too many results to look through, and I don't see what I want at the top of the results.* (Kind of reminds you of Google, huh?)

There has to be a better way to do a search for such a popular term. Luckily, from the main Oxford Music Online page you have several options to narrow your search.

Across the top you can see that you have the option to narrow your search by type of thing you are looking for (a person? a thing/subject? Or do you want to do a basic keyword search, but maybe only in Grove?

Or, you can choose which resource you want to search in or choose an advanced search.

If you choose to do an advanced search, you really start to have options to narrow your search.

> You can choose to search in certain sections of entries (biography, bibliography, etc)
> You can choose to search in certain types of entries in each resource. Choose Grove and then select which subset of entries (People, places, terminology, etc)
> And, you can choose to limit your search to the title of an entry, the full text of the entry, the bibliography, or the works list, or the contributors.

Don't forget to use the help tips Oxford provides!

If you want to just search and/or browse the subject entries in a particular resource, click on the "Subject Entries" link at the top of the page.

Now that I know all of this, I can try a smarter search for the concept of "practicing." I'm still going to use "practic*" but am going to limit myself to the category of "Musical terminology and concepts" and limit my search to entry titles.

When I do this I get just two results, and the one I want is second. I never would have thought to look under "Psychology of Music" for this!

*Ok, so the entry I wanted is about 15th in the list--so not so bad, but sometimes the thing you want can be even further down the list.

Do you know that you can set a default pickup location for any items you request from other campus libraries or through iShare?

Go to the library catalog and log in (if you haven't created an account yet you'll need to do that).

Once you've logged in, click on "Preferences" from the menu on the right.

Select UIUC Music Circ (or another location of your choice).

Do you use IIMP or IIPA or ProQuest Dissertations? If so, be prepared for a new look. It simplifies searching and expands the resources available.

IIMP contains both full-text and abstracts to articles from 1874 to the present while IIPA contains results from 1998 onward. Both resources are extremely helpful tools in music, dance, and theater research. ProQuest Dissertations includes dissertations and theses from the late 19th Century to present, many available in full text.

The banner at the top of the page offers a lot of features.

Your Searches and Items

You can choose which ProQuest databases you want to search by clicking the "Database" link in the top left corner.

The Recent Searches link lists all recent searches, which you can review or even combine just by clicking. Selected Items keeps track of the items you flagged while searching. My Research allows you to create and access a free account, enabling you to organize, manage, and save articles. You can also link your RefWorks account to your IIMP or IIPA account.

Translation

You can use the "Languages" link at the top right-hand corner of the page to translate the interface to a different language. After choosing an article, you can translate the text of most articles to another language.

Searching Tips

You can limit search results by:
Document Type
Reference Work
Document Feature, and/or
Language.

Be careful when limiting by Document Type (article, book, review, etc) because this will not necessarily give you the most results. The "Reference Work" limit choices provides easy access to a glossary, brief opera synopses, music fundamental terms, and a pronunciation guide.

All search results have icons that correspond with source type (scholarly journal, trade journal, newspaper). If you are unsure of what the icon represents, you can either mouse over it or look to the right side column under Source Type. The choices in the right column also help you narrow your results to a particular type of item.

Another way to limit your results uses the graphic at the bottom of the right hand column on the results page, which allows you to choose articles within a specific date range. This bar graph also shows when most of the articles on a subject were published.

Search Subject Areas

A new feature allows you to select specific subject areas to search in. The column on the right-hand side of the search screen lists areas which link to relevant databases.

This feature is not necessarily the best way to search for articles. Many of the databases included under The Arts have little to do with music; therefore searching IIMP and/or IIPA directly will yield the best results.

But, this feature does allow you to access Dissertations & Theses, which links to both ProQuest Dissertations and CIC (Big 12 School) Dissertations databases. It also allows you to access the News and Newspapers area which gives access to titles like The New York Times (historic and current issues).

Are you just beginning research for a project? If so, the Easy Search tool on the MPAL homepage may help you find many of the resources you need to get started. Easy Search searches the UIUC library catalog, I-Share, dictionaries and encyclopedias, and other databases to find reference entries, books, scores, recordings, journal articles, and newspaper articles.

Easy Search is especially helpful for helping you decide which of the many tools it links to to focus on as you continue your search past the first phase.

To use this tool, type in the Keyword, Author, or Title of the material you are looking for. After clicking "search" you will be directed to a page with links to your results.

The first section on the results page lists matches for the item in the UIUC library catalog and also in I-Share libraries. Often the results are further limited by Scores, Recording, and Film/Video. The results also include if your search was found in eBooks (including Google and Hathi Trust) or on IDEALS - the UIUC dissertation depository.

The Easy Search also covers journals including RILM, IIMP, JSTOR, and IIPA. By clicking on the Article Matches, you will be directed to a list of the articles that contain the words you searched for.

Finally, this tool searches through newspapers including the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the London Times. This can be very helpful if you are looking for concert reviews.

Are you looking for a specific article from a dance, music, or theatre journal? Do you just need any article from a specific dance, music, or theatre journal?

Here's one way to use the Music Easy Search tool on our home page to do that.

First, type the name of the journal in the search box. You can be precise and use quotation marks around it to keep those words together if you want.

Then, check the top of the results screen to see if Easy Search has suggested a match:

Once you click on the link, you'll get a list of choices. Check carefully to see which article tool has the dates you need.

The other way to approach this search is to use the new Online Journals and Databases tool linked from our site. This is recommended if you are looking for a journal that is not in dance, music, or theatre.

More information about how to do that is available at this blog post.