Articles published in music periodicals and essay collections in music can be found using UC Library Search or specific music literature indexes. The Library at Berkeley offers three major online indexes devoted to current music literature as well as two retrospective indexes. These indexes differ significantly, from the number and types of sources covered to the way they describe and present citations. Although each index, listed below, has an area of relative strength—Music Index, for example, is strongest in the field of music education, IIMP in performance topics, and RILM in musicology—thorough research involves checking more than one when looking for article citations and other literature on music.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (1967-present) provides broad, international coverage of scholarly writing on music, including periodical articles, books, essays in collections, dissertations, videos, conference proceedings, dissertations, ethnographic recordings, reviews and more. Comprehensive coverage includes music-related articles published in conference proceedings from 1835 through 1966; articles in Festschriften celebrating music scholars from 1840 to 1966; and articles in anniversary volumes published in honor of musicians, composers and institutions dating back to the 18th century.More recent citations do not include abstracts. Available in printed form in the Reading Room at ML1.R14. Updated monthly. UC access only.
Music Periodicals Database. Formerly known as IIMP, Music Database covers a broad cross-section of music periodical sources, from the most scholarly studies to the latest trends, including classical music, pop and popular music, rock, rap and hip-hop, blues, jazz, traditional and folk music, world music, music equipment and technology, recording techniques and technology, and the music, radio, and music video industries. Indexes more than 380 music periodicals (50 in full-text) from over 20 countries, including feature music articles and obituaries appearing in The New York Times and The Washington Post. List of periodicals indexed. Retrospective indexing for more than 165 titles, but without subject access or abstracts. Indexing for some periodicals begins with 1990. Entries from 1996 forward include an abstract. Updated quarterly. UC access only.
Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals. RIPM indexes selected music journals published 1800-1950 in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the US. It Offers a cumulative index to chronologies and authors appearing in over 65 volumes of the print version. The online archive contains 70 full-text, full-image periodicals, with new titles added every six months. Over 190 printed volumes, many indexed, are published in the RIPM series, available on the Reading Room at ML128.P24 T4 1993. Updated semiannually. UC access only.
JSTOR. The Music Collection in JSTOR (Journal Storage: The Scholarly Journal Archive) contains the complete back runs of 32 titles dedicated to scholarly research and theory in the field of music, including journals published in the Netherlands, Croatia, Hungary, Germany and France. Back runs end at a so-called "moving wall," representing the time period between the last issue available in JSTOR and the most recently published issue of a journal. The "moving wall" is specified by publishers in their license agreements with JSTOR, and generally ranges from 3 and 5 years. UC access only.
Performing Arts Database. Formerly known as IIPA full text, Performing Arts Database draws its content from more than 210 scholarly and popular performing arts periodicals, and also indexes a variety of documents such as biographical profiles, conference papers, obituaries, interviews, discographies, reviews and events. The database covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry, including dance, film, television, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, broadcast arts, circus performance, comedy, storytelling, opera, pantomime, puppetry, and magic. Every IIPA full text record in the current file (1998 forward) contains an abstract. UC access only.
In addition to the full-text articles from subscription sources listed above, a number of academic journals are freely available online. These e-journals usually have no print equivalent. Relatively few of such e-journal titles, however, have their contents included in the music article citation indexes discussed above—though the number is increasing. Articles in music e-journals are thus difficult to access in comparison to those in traditional print sources or even print sources with electronic, full-text delivery.
eJournal titles of interest in the fields of ethnomusicology, historical musicology and composition—distributed via the Web, with back issues also available online (i.e., 'zines and commercially oriented publications are excluded), and all or substantial portions of the journal content of each is freely accessible (i.e., sites do not simply represent advertising for a print edition of the journal)—may be found by browsing DOAJ, the Directory of Open Access Journals, featuring free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals, covering all subjects and many languages.
Historical archives of certain publications may also be available at individual websites, such as music industry sources Music Trade Review (1880 - 1933, 1940-1954) and Presto: The American Music Trade Weekly (1920 - 1941) at The International Arcade Museum Library.