library Resources for Music

Student/Faculty Resources > Library > Library Resources for Music

The music resources provided by Temple University Libraries are extensive. Paley Library houses over 50,000 titles in music, covering such subjects as ethnomusicology, jazz, popular music, music therapy, music education, music theory, and music history, as well as complete in-depth coverage of the classical music performance repertoire. Most of the music holdings are located on the third floor or Paley Library. Here can be found conducting scores, piano scores, miniature scores, performance sets for chamber music, solo repertoire scores, piano music, vocal music, the collected critical editions of over 30 composers, and scholarly monumental editions. Here, on the third floor of Paley Library, can also be found books, journals, thematic catalogs, and selected reference titles concerning a broad range of musical topics. All of these holdings are catalogued in Temple University Library’s “Diamond” online catalog at diamond.temple.edu.
An extensive collection of sound recordings on 33 1/3 rpm discs can be found in the Zahn Library, located in Ritter Hall Annex. Citations for these recordings are also in the “Diamond” online catalog.

Included in the music holdings of Temple University Libraries are several special collections. Of particular interest may be a sheet music collection of over 1,500 titles of 19th and early 20th century imprints, or the Contemporary Culture Collection that covers all aspects of popular culture, or perhaps a collection of 18th and early 19th century dance libretti, all housed in the Special Collections department of Paley Library, located on the mezzanine. Urban Archives, located on the ground floor of Paley Library, is an entire department dedicated to the city of Philadelphia and its history. Here is housed the complete archive of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, a carefully indexed clipping file and photo archive dating back to the early 19th century. This archive is an invaluable resource for the study of the rich musical heritage of our city. A particularly noteworthy resource is the Blockson Collection, a world-famous collection of African-American resources, including musical materials of African American heritage. The Blockson Collection is located in Sullivan Hall on the Berks Mall, just a half a block away from Temple University’s main Paley Library.

Major electronic resources that are available to Temple University music students and scholars are RILM, IIMP, and IIPA. RILM (Repertoire Internationale de la Littérature de la Musique) is the major indexing and abstracting resource of music materials provided at Temple University. RILM indexes and abstracts music journals, festschrifrts, books, dissertations, and conference proceedings from 1969 to the present and includes materials from all over the world and on every aspect of music. IIMP (International Index to Music Periodicals) and its sister publication IIPA (International Index to the Performing Arts), provide indexing and abstracts of journal articles, but also provide full-text coverage of over 40 music periodicals. Music students, scholars, and those with a keen interest in music are also encouraged to explore other indexing and abstracting databases containing citations of musical interest, including Lexis Nexis, which contains the full-text of the New York Times, Anthropological Abstracts (for ethnomusicological subjects), ATLA (for sacred music), ERIC (for music education), Academic Search Premier, and a host of others. Access to these electronic resources is provided to Temple University students, faculty, and staff with AccessNet username and password, in addition to proxy identification. (For information on proxy configuration, see Temple’s Computer Services helpdesk website at www.temple.edu/helpdesk and click on the link on the left that says “Accessing Temple’s Restricted Resources.”) Links to all of these databases, and many more, are found at the Temple University Libraries’ homepage at www.library.temple.edu under “All Research Databases.”

The Esther Boyer College of Music and Dance houses a number of special libraries, each suited for a particular purpose. The Presser Listening Library holds a strong collection of sound recordings and videotapes, the Presser Learning center contains materials related to music education, and the Instrumental Ensemble and Vocal Ensemble Library contain scores and performing sets for large ensembles. These libraries are all located in Presser Hall, at the corner of 13th and Norris Streets. The Opera Library specializes in sound recordings and vocal scores of operas, and is located on the third floor of Mitten Hall. The Alice Tully Library contains an extensive collection of performance sets of solo and chamber music, and is located in Rock Hall.