These websites have been recommended by public music librarians in several countries, so the language is indicated after each title.
1. General websites
1.1 Library gateways
- Portal for music libraries in Finland (Finnish)
http://www.kirjastot.fi/fi-Fi/musikki/(link is external) - The HelMet libraries, music section
http://www.lib.hel.fi/fi-FI/musiikkisivut/(link is external) - Catalogues and professional services in Finnish Branch website (Finnish)
http://www.kaapeli.fi/~musakir(link is external) - Music Library of Sweden (Swedish)
http://www.muslib.se/lankar.html(link is external) - Molndal City Library internet directory has links on all subjects, in the same order as books in Swedish libraries
http://bibliotek.molndal.se/webbkatalog/xij.htm(link is external) - DW3 Classical Music resources (English) Duke University Libraries website
http://www.lib.duke.edu/dw3/(link is external)
1.2 Library catalogues
- COPAC (English)
Allows access to the merged online catalogues of 24 of the largest university research libraries in the UK & Ireland, plus the British Library, National Library of Scotland and National Library of Wales.
There is no special music search facility, but hundreds of thousands of music records are included.
http://www.copac.ac.uk/copac(link is external) - Min-On Music Library (Japanese)
A Japanese private organisation specialising in western art music. OPAC:
http://webopac.min-on.or.jp:8080(link is external) - NACSIS webcat (Japanese)
http://webcat.nii.ac.jp/(link is external) - Tokyo Bunka Kaikan
http://www.t-bunka.jp/library/index.html(link is external) - Japan Choral Music Center & Library
http://www.jcanet.or.jp/center/(link is external) - Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library (Japanese)
http://library.metro.tokyo.jp/(link is external)
1.3 Online Music Guides
GUIDES TO MUSIC AMG (English)
All music: gives the main genres of music relating to specific artists and composers.
You can also search by country, instrument, mood, theme, genre
http://www.allmusic.com/(link is external)
2. Song indexes
These indexes refer to published collections of songs owned by the libraries concerned.
- Barbican Library song index (English)
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/barbican_songs/searchPage.aspx(link is external) - Plymouth Library (English)
http://www.webopac.plymouth.gov.uk/cgi-bin/plymouth-cat.sh?enqtype=MUSIC&enqpara1=ANY(link is external)
3. Specialists additional helpers
- NAME THAT TUNE - Melodyhound (English)
If the enquirer can hum or whistle a tune, finding the name is possible using Melodyhound. It uses a simple code (up, down, repeat). There are links to similar sites.
http://melodyhound.com(link is external) - Coversongs
http://www.secondhandsongs.com(link is external) - All Record Labels (English)
Contains links to probably every record label website. The "Browse by" facility is very useful.
http://www.allrecordlabels.com(link is external)
4. Composer websites
- J.S.Bach
http://www.jsbach.org(link is external) (English) - L.van Beethoven
http://www.beethoven-haus-bonn.de(link is external) (German, English) - E. Grieg
http://www.bergen.folkebibl.no/grieg-samlingen/grieg_samlingen_intro.html(link is external) - W.A. Mozart
http://www.nma.at/english/e0e.html(link is external) (German, English, Italian)
5. Music-in-Print
- Boosey & Hawkes (English) Good for classical music.
Lists scores published by hundreds of music publishers. Use the "advanced search" option for best results
http://www.boosey.com/pages/shop(link is external) - Music Room (English) Good for popular music but also has classical music.
Use the "advanced search" option for best results; here you can search for individual songs.
http://www.musicroom.com(link is external) - Sheet Music Hound (English)
Classical and popular music
http://www.sheetmusichound.com(link is external) - Swiss Music Edition (headings in English, French, German & Italian) Links to publishers' websites.
http://www.musicedition.ch/sme/index_e.htm(link is external) - Gakufu-Net (Japanese) Online music score shop
http://www.gakufu.ne.jp/GakufuNet/(link is external)
6. Sound
- Amazon: individual sites for each country, e.g.:
http://www.amazon.de(link is external)
http://www.amazon.fr(link is external)
http://www.amazon.co.jp(link is external)
http://www.amazon.co.uk(link is external) - HMV: individual sites for each country, e.g.:
http://www.hmv.co.jp(link is external) - Tower.JP (Japanese)
http://www.towerrecords.co.jp/sitemap/CSfHome.jsp(link is external)
7. Music by Genre
ELECTRONIC
- musicIshkur's guide to electronic music
http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/www.di.fm/edmguide/edmguide.html(link is external)
MOVIES
- Internet Movie Database
http://www.Imdb.com(link is external)
WORLD MUSIC
- General guide on Worldmusic
http://www.rootsworld.com/rw(link is external) - African music encyclopedia
http://africanmusic.org(link is external)
8. Music Trade
- Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society & Performing Right Society (English)
http://www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk(link is external) - Music Forest (Japanese) A portal for music copyright management in Japan with databases
http://www.minc.gr.jp/(link is external)
9. Music librarianship
- Swedish guidelines for creating subject headings (Swedish)
http://www.kb.se/bibliotek/svenska-amnesord(link is external)
Updated July 2008
