Music & Musicians

The easiest way to find music scores in the SUNY Adirondack Library is to go to the upper floor of the library and browse in the music call number area M 1000 to M 1500. Ask a librarian to direct you if needed. You'll find the scores section easily - most are oversized books in the same section.

Or, click this link below for ideas. That link leads to a search for the word Scores as a subject heading. To limit this search to physical books, click the Circulating Books checkbox in the left column. If you're using this from off-campus, log in with your username password when prompted.

Here are a few examples of sheet music the library has to offer:

Music is protected by Copyright Laws! Anything that is not protected is considered Public Domain and can be used.

Learn More about it from the Public Domain Information Project

To find a book about your musician or a music topic:

• enter a name or term into the Start Your Research Here search box and
• limit it to Books using the dropdown menu (this limit includes physical books and ebooks, if you just want ebooks limit it to Ebooks)
• click Search
• to limit to just physical books, scroll down the page to Library Location in the left column and click on Circulating Books

You may borrow circulating books for four weeks. 

Search tips: 

• Most of the books that will be useful to you will be in the ML section on the second floor of the Library. 
• If you do not find an entire book just on your musician, enter the genre of music in which your musician composed or participated: Rock Music, Jazz, Rap Music, etc.
• To access ebooks off campus, you will need to log in with your username and password.

 
Below are a few examples of books about music and musicians that the library has to offer. New items added to the library collection are listed at the bottom of this page.

To find an article about your musician or a music topic:

• enter a name or term into the Start Your Research Here search box on the library's home page and
• limit it to Articles using the drop-down menu and click Search.
• To limit to scholarly articles, select Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals on the left side of the search results.

You can also search specific library databases to find scholarly and popular articles, encyclopedic entries, and more. Most of the library's databases are searched through the Start Your Research Here search box, but some are not. Below are specific databases relevant to music, as well as links to other subject-specific lists of databases and general databases.

Below are lists of online publications dealing with various aspects of music. Each link leads to a list of journals and magazines that are organized alphabetically by the title of the publication. To find a specific journal or magazine, type a title, subject, or ISSN/ISBN into the search box at the top of the page. To find articles within a specific publication, type a search term into the "Search within Publication" box associated with the desired journal or magazine.

The library subscribes to many print periodicals, including Billboard, Down Beat, Instrumentalist, Journal of Popular Culture, New York Times, People Weekly, and Rolling Stone. They are located on the top floor of the library, near the Reference Desk. Many other publications will also have articles about music and musicians. Our print items are supplemented by thousands of journals and articles in our electronic databases. You can also look at music industry magazine websites for relevant articles and news.

To find a music CD:

• enter your search term (a composer or musician, the name of a work, etc) into the Start Your Research Here search box on the library's home page
  • to see all CDs, leave the search box blank
• leave the dropdown box at All Resources
• hit Search
• scroll down the page until you see Library Location in the left column
• click on Audio CDs

All of the CDs are located on the top shelf of the first full height shelf at the head of the stairs in the library. They are organized by call number. For assistance, ask the librarian at the reference desk.

CDs may be borrowed for two weeks.

 
Here are a few examples of music CDs and DVDs the library has to offer:

Audio CDs in the SUNY Adirondack Library are cataloged based on the ANSCR (Alpha-Numeric System for Classification of Recordings) System. The ANSCR system classifies sound recordings based on 46 different categories.

Try some of the following search terms when looking for library materials related to Music & Musicians:

Ballad
Band AND music
Composer
Concert*
Ethnomusicology
Jazz
Music*
Musician*
Musicology
Opera
Orchestra
Singing
Sings
Song

Below is a link to the 60 Minutes segment about the Landfill Harmonic, the Paraguay town that made musical instruments from its trash.

The library also has the DVD documentary called Landfill Harmonic (DVD ML28.C28 L36 2016). It cannot be checked out, but it can viewed at any of the computers in the library or in a group study room. This DVD is 85 minutes long. 

Just as with a book or an article, you must cite all sources you use, including things like videos and sound recordings - including YouTube! For help with citations, check with the Center for Reading and Writing (CRW).

Films on Demand offers more than 38,000 educational and documentary videos from the History Channel, BBC, Ken Burns, Modern Marvels, Royal Opera House, much more.

• Advanced Search lets you search for specific subjects and closed-captioning.
• Transcripts tab displays the video's script.
• This is a subscription database. If using from off-campus, log in with your SUNY Adirondack username and password when prompted.
• Faculty - To set up a playlist and other features, see:

If you have more questions, ask a librarian! We are here to help.​

Stop by the reference desk on the top floor of the Scoville Learning Commons to ask us in-person, or ...

Text us: (518) 203-1073
Call us: (518) 743-2260
Email us: librarian@sunyacc.edu
Tweet us: @SUNYAdkLib
Ask a question online.