Skip to Main Content

Music

A research guide and resource for students of music at NSU.

Scholarly Resources vs. Popular Resources

Source: "Study Help: Scholarly Sources Explained" by University of South Australia; https://youtu.be/IRCHdhdS_aU. Accessed 3/27/2023

Searching Databases

The Lyman Beecher Brooks Library (LBBL) can connect you with hundreds of databases to help you build general knowledge, to perform background research, to connect your with scholarly resources, and even find some entertainment with streaming movies and audio.

Many databases are specific to content type or discipline and will have specific best practices and strategies for getting the best search results. Visit the Library 101 - Advanced Research Techniques guide to learn more.

Note that you may need to authenticate through OpenAthens using your MyNSU login credentials in order to access content.
For more information, visit the following guide How to Access Databases from Off-Campus.

All students, faculty, and staff at NSU have access to FREE subscriptions to the Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Sign up for an account to have access to current and archival coverage from some of the world's best news outlets. Please visit the following guide for details: Newspaper Digital Subscriptions for Students, Faculty, and Staff

In addition to the newspaper subscriptions above, the NSU research databases include access to historical newspapers, news aggregators, and business reporting platforms. Try out the following resources or visit the full A-Z database list for more: A-Z Databases


Reference databases are a great place to start your research. These databases include resources that are perfect for background information and broad coverage of topics, such as: encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories, and manuals.

Try out some of the reference databases below to get started or visit the full database list here: A-Z Databases


NSU research databases include access to current and historical resources ranging from primary resources to scholarly books and peer-reviewed articles.

Try out some of the research databases below to get started or visit the full database list here: A-Z Databases


Major research platforms that cover multiple disciplines include EBSCOhost and Proquest:


Primary resource databases include items such as original works and digitized historical materials:

The library offers a wide variety of audio / visual databases from instructional lab videos to popular movies and jazz music.

Try out some of the audio / visual databases below to get started or visit the full database list here: A-Z Databases


RILM Abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text (EBSCOhost)

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text is part of the EBSCOhost platform. By default this platform will open on the Advanced Search screen. You can enter general keywords and phrases in the top search box or switch to Basic Search by clicking the "Basic Search" link below the search boxes. Either way, MLA International Bibliography with Full Text will return results across its full collection that include some or all of your keywords. 

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text search box.

Many of the EBSCOhost databases available at Norfolk State University search huge volumes of resources and using the Advanced Search to narrow your results is often advised. See the Advanced Search tab of this block for more information.

The "Advanced Search" option is the default and preferred method of using the EBSCOhost platform search.

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text advanced search box.

Use the provided Advanced Search boxes to build your search and refine it by assigning values to the "Select a field" dropdown menu at the end of each search box.

Below the search boxes, there are a variety of Search options that can be used to narrow results by language, publication date, and many more.

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text includes many items in languages other than English and many abstract only results that will not provide full text. If you would like to limit your results to full text documents in English, it can be helpful to use the Search Options checkboxes on the Advanced Search screen. This section is also where you will find the "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals" checkbox to limit your results to only scholarly resources.

For detailed explanations of every field in the Advanced Search feature, review the instructions in the user manual that can be accessed from the "Help" link in the upper-right corner of any page.

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text and other EBSCOhost databases offer several specific filtering and time-saving features.

  • Dynamic filtering:
    • In the search results page, the "Refine Results" tools on the left side menu will adapt and changed based on the database being accessed and the type of materials in the results list.
    • If available, the "Refine Results" list will include the "Full Text" and "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals" check boxes as well as a publication date range covering the available dates in the results list.
    • Some databases will introduce additional filtering facets such as the research methods used to conduct a study or the inclusion of images. When you land on the results page, take note of all of the available filters to help you find the best items from your search.
  • Easy Sign In:
    • When you access EBSCOhost platform databases through OpenAthens, you only need to click the "Sign In" link at the top of any page to enter your personalized workspace where you can save your resources to Folders and even share folders with a group.
    • If you want to save documents to your folder, make sure that you click "Sign In" first. This will make sure that your items are saved and will be accessible the next time that you access and EBSCOhost database.
    • Because your EBSCOhost account works across the full platform, your folders are available any EBSCOhost database so that your research is always available.
  • Mix-and-Match:
    • The EBSCOhost platform includes many databases and you can search across any or all of them simultaneously by selecting the databases that you want to search from the full database list.
      • From the top of the search page, click the "Choose Databases" link and a pop-up will the full database list will appear. Check or un-check the boxes for databases that you want to search and click OK. Now when you search, you will be searching all of your selected databases at once. 
        • For more information about each database, click the ">" next to the database name to open a full description.
        • Note that when you mix databases, you may lose some of the filtering options that you are used to seeing in an individual search on the results page. If necessary, rerun your search in single databases as needed.

EBSCOhost choose databases list pop-up.

EBSCOhost offers a full user manual that can be accessed through the "Help" button in the upper right corner of any page. Additionally, anywhere that you see a "?" symbol at the end of a line, you can click that button for support on that specific topic.

EBSCOhost user manual pop-up.