New way to access Naxos Music Library

The University Libraries loaded bibliographic records for thousands of musical sound recordings available through Naxos Music Library. This means that if you search the NIU library catalog for sound recordings, recordings from Naxos Music Library might appear in your list of results.

To illustrate, I searched our catalog for Georges Enesco's Romanian Rhapsody no. 1 (in our new catalog system, I used an advanced search and entered "enesco" as "author name" in the first search box, and "romanian rhapsody 1," selected all of these, and searched as "keyword anywhere" in the second search box) and I saw the list of results shown in the first picture on this blog post. When I clicked on the circled result, Rhapsody, I saw the page in the second picture. Note the links in the catalog record that will take you to Naxos Music Library. You must be on campus, or connected to the campus network through a virtual private network (you must be affiliated with the university to connect from off campus), to listen to Naxos Music Library.

Not every recording available through Naxos Music Library will be in the NIU Library catalog, but several thousand of them are. Please search Naxos Music Library directly for complete access to its content.

If you have any questions on using Naxos Music Library, please contact me at mduffyiv@niu.edu or via telephone at 753-9839.

New Resources for Music Research

If you are working on a research project, and are stuck, need some help, or just want to brush up on your research skills, the Music Library has two relatively new books in the reference collection for you! Laurie Sampsel's Music Research just arrived today, and we have had the seventh edition of Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations for a few months now. See complete citations below:

• Sampsel, Laurie J. Music Research: A Handbook. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Call no. MUR ML113 .S28 2009.

This book is a very well annotated bibliography, divided into two parts: "Research Process and Research Tools," and "Writing, Style Manuals, and Citation." It has something for everyone, from advanced researchers to those new to academic music libraries. To get started, Sampsel's chapters on library catalogs (ch. 4), and periodical indexes (ch. 5), are excellent.

• Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers, 7th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Call no. MUR LB2369 .T8 2007.

This is a major overhaul of Turabian's style manual. Much has been added since the publication of the sixth edition in 1996. For starters, this new edition contains an entire section of material on the research process. Authors Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams contributed this section, using material from their text on the research process, The Craft of Research, 2d ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003). Also, the organization of the chapters on the way sources should be cited seems much more intuitive. The "notes-bibliography" and "parenthetical citations-reference list" styles are now addressed in separate chapters. And very importantly, there are many more examples of how electronic information should be cited!

I encourage anyone who is working on a music research project of any kind to consult Sampsel's book, and I also highly recommend Turabian's style manual, if you are not required to use another style (such as MLA or APA).