Help : Research Strategy and Process : Finding Specific Types of Material:
In the new web catalog you may find that the ability to use more sophisticated searching techniques enables you to find the materials you are looking for more efficiently. In this catalog, there are powerful keyword searching capabilities as well as the more familiar type of name, title and subject heading searches.
However, the items retrieved by the various searches are not necessarily sorted in ways that are useful for music. Therefore, it is best to use various searching features of the new catalog to make your search as precise as possible and retrieve the smallest number of items necessary to satisfy your needs.
Composers and performers (both individuals and ensembles) are treated as "authors" in the Cornell catalog. In the Basic Search, select "Author--Sorted by Title." This search includes cross references from variant forms of titles to the uniform title, which collects various forms under and standardized title. For example, a reference from Beethoven's Moonlight sonata to Sonatas, piano, no. 14, op. 27, no. 2, C# minor. In Guided Keyword Search select "Author/Creator."
For material about a composer, performer or performing group, select "Subject" in Basic Search and "Subject heading" or "Name (By or About)" in the Guided Keyword Search. "Name (By or About)" is a broader search than "Subject heading.".
Most music searchers will find the Guided Keyword Search to be the most useful when searching for a particular piece of music because the composer's name can be combined with other search terms.
If you are looking for printed music, set your search limit format to "Music Score" before entering your search.
If you are looking for videorecordings or DVD's, set your search limit format to "Visual Material."
If you are looking for all types of recorded music, set your search limit format to "Musical Recording."
To limit your search to a particular format of recorded sound, it is helpful to add keywords that appear only in the description of that format. Since standard descriptions have varied over the years, this method is not 100% reliable.
For compact discs add to any guided search:
AND
Search term: (compact) [in Notes index]
For many musical works, elements of the title vary depending on the language of the publisher. A standardized list of types of compositions has been used in the construction of uniform titles for many of those works in the library catalog. These standardized terms can be used to retrieve a more complete list of a work. For example, use "symphon?" for sinfonie, symphonies, sinfonia, etc. To view an extensive list of the terms used for types of compositions, Click here. (Located at Yale University).
If you have a set of keywords that combine to retrieve a small number of items, and you do not need to be comprehensive in your search, the Relevance Keyword search may serve your needs. The use of a "+" to mark essential terms improves the assignment of appropriate "relevance".
For example, "mozart 550 compact" retrieves an enormous list headed by books on the compact disc industry. On the other hand, "+mozart +550 compact" retrieves a fairly usable list of recordings of Mozart's Symphony in G minor, K.550.