Database+Searches

= Database Searches  =

How to use the TTU Libraries' online catalog and databases to find books, articles, and dissertations, and (if necessary) order them through Inter-Library Loan
You can order many articles, dissertations, scores, recordings and other items which are held at other universities using Inter-Library Loan. However, before you can request the item, you must figure out what you're looking for.

Go to [] (takes you to the University Library's Home Page).

**To locate books in the TTU collection:**

Click on "Find Books and More".

Under "Search for a Keyword; Type a Keyword," type in the author's name, a word from the title, or a general "subject"-type keyword. Be sure to specify which type of index (Title, Author, Subject, Table of Contents, etc) you want searched. Note: "Word(s) (anywhere)" will provide the broadest search, while "Word(s) (in subject)" will locate all books which the Library of Congress lists under that subject. You should try both types of searches.

Click on "Go." This will bring up a list of all items in the TTU Library that fit your search terms. Note that clicking on the item's title or call number will take you to a more detailed description. The call number itself will help you locate the item on the Library shelves.

**To locate articles, either in TTU journals or held in other libraries:**

Click on "Find Articles". This takes you to a long list of databases accessible through the Library's home page. This list also includes some databases that contain the complete text of the journals in online form. Please note: all of these databases will include items that are not contained in the TTU Library. However, you can still acquire these items through Inter-Library Loan.

Two databases are particularly useful for music history research:

1) The online New Grove Dictionary (scroll down to "Groves Music Online"). You can search the complete text of the NGD online; for bibliographic purposes, this is useful because each NGD article includes a relatively up-to-date bibliography on each topic.

2) The online RILM (scroll down to "RILM"). You can use this database to search the tables of contents of over 200 music-oriented journals and locate both bibliographic citations and, usually, abstracts of the articles. RILM contains articles, book reviews, and also dissertations, so it is useful in locating several different types of sources.

Please note: the format in which the online databases deliver bibliographic information is //not// the same as that required by the Chicago Manual of Style format employed at Texas Tech. Therefore **//you//** are responsible for reworking this information into correct CMS format. Don't lose points by neglecting to do this!