KEYWORD SEARCHING

This search type lets you search by an important word in one field, such as title, or to search important words in several fields. The advantage to this kind of search is that you do not need to know the exact title or subject to do the search.

Author-title keyword

Use this option to search for any word included in the author, title, or contents fields of a catalog record. For example, you could search for “Beethoven 67” to look for any scores or recordings of Beethoven’s fifth symphony, opus 67.

Author-title keyword

Use this option to search for any word included in the author, title, or contents fields of a catalog record. For example, you could search for “Beethoven 67” to look for any scores or recordings of Beethoven’s fifth symphony, opus 67.

Comprehensive keyword

Use this option to search for any word included in any indexed field, including author, title, contents, subject, notes, and publisher information. This search can be very useful, but because it is so broad it can also be very slow. Choose your keywords very carefully.

Other keyword searches

Other keyword searches available include Author, Title, Subject Heading, Periodical Title (searches only for periodicals), Notes and Contents and Publisher. There are also keyword searches available for standard numbers (ISBN, ISSN, etc.), language, and country of publication.

Combining keyword searches

Once you have done a keyword search, you can refine your search by adding another term to it. Use the pull-down menus to select the index you want to search and whether you want to combine using AND, OR, or NOT.

Boolean logical operators:

Words combined with AND must all be present in the record to retrieve it. For example, an author-title keyword search for “Coltrane and Miles” would retrieve recordings that featured both John Coltrane and Miles Davis, but probably wouldn’t find any items that just featured one of these two players.

Use OR to find synonyms; this enlarges your search. For example, a subject keyword search for “Brahms or Schumann” would find records that have to do with either (or both) of these people.

Use NOT to exclude certain words from your search. For example, an author search for “Bach not Sebastian” would find Johann Christian Bach but not Johann Sebastian Bach.

You can also combine these operators with parentheses for more complicated searches, as in the following comprehensive keyword search: “((music and education) or kodaly) not piano”.

PHRASE SEARCHING

Phrase searching is a way to find an exact match on an author, title, subject heading, or periodical title. In order to do a phrase search, you must enter the author, title, etc. exactly as it appears in the catalog (type in the last name first for authors). However, you can leave off some of the author or title and you will be sent to the closest entry. Subject heading phrase searches must be an exact match, however. Some examples:

Author phrase: “Mozart, Wolfgang”

Title phrase: “New Grove Dictionary of Music and”

Periodical title: “Latin American Music Review”

Subject heading: “Jazz–History and criticism”

SAVING RECORDS IN THE CATALOG

Once you have found a title you want to save, simply click on “Save This Record” to mark it for printing or downloading.

When you’re ready to print or download your saved records, choose “View Saved Records” and follow the instructions on the screen. Remember that your records are only saved until your session is ended. When you log off or leave your search for more than a few minutes, your saved records will be lost.

FINDING ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS

Do not use the catalog – because articles in periodicals, like contents of books, are not usually listed in a library catalog.

Consult a periodical index to find articles, and then find out whether the library owns the periodicals by searching the online catalog for each periodical title. The catalog will tell you the location, format, and call number of the periodical, if the Libraries own it.

To get to periodical indexes, use the “Online Databases” button on the Music Library home page.

For music subjects some good periodical indexes are the International Index to Music Periodicals or RILM Abstracts. (RILM Abstracts and Music Index are also available in print and CD-ROM in
the Music Library). These are available under the “Arts and Humanities” databases section.

ArticleFirst, CitationFirst, UnCover, and Current Contents are good general resources to use to search for articles in recent periodicals.

Once you have found article citations, a title phrase search in the library catalog will find the periodicals containing your articles. If UTK Libaries do not own the periodicals you need, you may place an interlibrary loan request to borrow them. This service is usually free to UT students, faculty and staff. If you are not affiliated with the university, ask your local librarian about interlibrary loan services.

FINDING JAZZ TUNES

Charts

Charts and fake books are not indexed in the online catalog or the UTK Song Index. However, you can look for charts included in Jamey Aebersold’s New Approach to Jazz Improvisation (MT68.A4) by searching the online index, or by the print copy in the Music Library. Standards can often be found in song anthologies. Take a look at the instructions for finding sheet music to a song to look up charts or scores for these tunes.

Recordings

Individual titles are often contained in the contents of a catalog record. Simply do an author-title keyword search for a performer’s name or for words from a song title. Check the records you retrieve to make sure that you have a recording and that your song is actually on the recording. (Too many words make the search slow down too much, so choose the most unique words for your search. But take a look at your results – remember that a search for “Sunny” could also retrieve “When Sunny Gets Blue” or “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”)