Library Subject Guides
As a Music student, you are expected to find and use high quality literature. You'll need to use a range of different sources and demonstrate your ability to find good results in order to impress your tutors and to develop your research skills.
Books can be a great place to start your reading around a topic.
Music books are located in the LM section in the John Paynter Music Library, located on the ground floor of the Harry Fairhurst Library. Many books will also be available online as e-books. Look for the links in YorSearch, under the View It section of each book.
| Shelf location | Subject |
|---|---|
| LM | Music |
| LM 1 | Theory and technique of music |
| LM 4 | Vocal music |
| LM 5 | Instrumental ensemble(s) and their music |
| LM 11- LM 99 | Scores |
The University has access to Collections 1 to 4 and the Wellcome Trust Collection.
The Library has a large collection of scores in a range of formats including print, electronic, and microfiche. All of the scores, regardless of format, are listed on the Library Catalogue YorSearch. Print scores are located in the John Paynter Music Library on the ground floor of the Fairhurst. The collection is grouped by score type, musical form or ensemble, rather than by composer.
The number in the score's shelfmark indicates the form and instrumentation of the piece. For example, LM 55.61 MOZ is a concerto (55) for piano (61) by Mozart (MOZ).
When searching for scores on YorSearch use the refine options to narrow down your search to scores only.
The Complete Works section of the score library is located at LM 11. The section contains the works of about 65 composers, usually in the form of urtext editions; editions that try to replicate the composer's original score as closely as possible.
The individual pieces within each of the "complete works" volumes may not be listed on YorSearch, so if you are searching for a score by a mainstream composer it is always worth checking in this section. Use the index at the end of each composer's series to find out which volume contains the work you are looking for.
Some of the "complete works" are not yet complete - we will add new volumes as soon as they become available.
Some of the entries on YorSearch will give you access to an electronic version of the score. We try to make these available to all wherever we can, but copyright means that we are often only able to give access to eScores of specific works to students on designated modules. In these cases the eScore is only accessible via the module reading list - you will not be able to access it via YorSearch.
As well as the scores on YorSearch you will find a wealth of freely available scores online. See the related websites links further down this page for some good starting points.
The Music Microfiche collection is an amazing resource containing thousands of facsimile images of early music manuscripts. As the name suggests, the images are vastly reduced in size, meaning that you need to use a special machine to read them. The microfiche are housed in the main reading room of the Burton Library and you can search for their exact locations on YorSearch.
Once you have located the microfilm reel that you wish to view you need to take it into the Borthwick's microfilm room which can be accessed via their reception, across the landing from the Burton reading room. There are a number of microfiche readers available to use, including two that allow you to save relevant extracts that you find onto a memory stick.
If you can't find the score that you need within our collections then don't panic! Just fill in our request form on the Tell us what you need webpage and we will find a way to get you access - this might mean that we purchase a copy for the collection, or that we borrow one from another Library on your behalf.
The Library has an AV Collection on the ground floor of the Harry Fairhurst building which includes recordings of music, theatre, opera, TV broadcasts and films, including a foreign language section. The collection contains DVDs, blu rays and VHS formats, as well as CDs and cassettes, but the vast majority of films here are currently in DVD format. You will also find a DVD viewing room that small groups can use (bookable via the Library room booking pages).
The resources below give you access to our online collection of recordings of works created or adapted for film, radio or live performance, in addition to interviews with composers, performers, authors, producers and a broad range of further related materials .
The University has access to Volume I.
You will not have access to all the content in Drama Online, please see More info for details of what is available.
If Drama Online does not recognise you as University of York then select the Log In option in the top-right of the page and under Helpful Hints select Shibboleth Login Page
Information about theses is available on the main Library website.
All University PhD and MPhil theses are available in the Library in hard copy (find them using YorSearch). For Masters theses, only certain Departments make these available via our Digital Collections, which you can find linked to in the top pane in YorSearch.
All York PG Research students are required to upload their thesis into the White Rose Research Online, a shared online respository for academic publications from the Universities of York, Sheffield and Leeds. You can also access theses from outside the University:
To start a more detailed search for articles and other research evidence, you'll need to use bibliographic databases. These are large indexes that allow you to search for articles from hundreds of different journals at the same time. The databases do not necessarily give you access to the full text, instead they will usually include the citation information and a brief abstract that gives a summary of the work. If you find citations for resources that we don't hold at York you can request the full text via the "Tell us what you need" link on YorSearch.
The University holds many subject specific bibliographic databases as listed below. If your work is more interdisciplinary we recommend using one of the larger databases such as Web of Science which, despite the name, covers all subject areas and allows you to search effectively across multiple disciplines.
All journal titles are listed on YorSearch, and can be found by searching the journal title.
If you don't have a specific title in mind, you can browse journals in your subject area on Browzine. Journals are organised by field of research, such as:
You can also search for journals on full text databases such as those shown below, but bear in mind that they are finite collections, so you could miss key articles on your topic. To find everything that has been published in a specific academic area you really need to use a bibliographic database.
For access: login at the site by scrolling down the page to the section called Institutional subscribers and use the unique username and password.
For alumni access please see the Virtual Library JSTOR section on Alumni Learning.
Historic and contemporary newsreel, newspaper & magazine collections. These resources can be a valuable tool when researching, giving insight into how a specific topic has been perceived by the general public over time.
The University has access to Collection I.
The University has access to Collection 1 .
The Economist from 1997 onward is also available via YorSearch.
For access off-campus please use the VPN.
The databases below cover a range of disciplines and may be useful depending on your research topic
The Stuart and Cumberland Papers from the Royal Archives, Windsor Castle are on trial until 3rd March 2025.
