Guides: Graduate Music Program Orientation: Part 3: Library Databases

A. What is a Library Database?

A library database is a tool that allows you to search for and find different types of information. For Music Education students that information might be scholarly peer-reviewed articles on teaching pedagogy for music instruction or it might be information on a composer or sound recordings. At Jenks Library we have several library databases you can search to help retrieve the information you need.

To select an appropriate database to use, first think about the type of information you are trying to find.

Are you looking for scholarly articles? - if yes, choose databases such as ERIC, Professional Development Collection, and Academic Search Complete that help you search by keyword to find peer-reviewed articles.
Are you looking for musical term information, biographical information about composers, etc? - if yes, choose databases such as those introduced in the "Starting Points > Background Research Material" section, such as Grove Music Online or Credo Reference.
Are you looking for audio files or sheet music? - if yes, choose one of the Naxos databases and browse by composer, time period, and more.

B. How do you access online resources?

Go to the Jenks Library website at gordon.edu/library

Screenshot of library homepage with an arrow pointing to database tab

Find the online resource you need from the Library Databases page.

If prompted by the Gordon log in screen, log in to your Gordon email.

C. How to search library databases.

For your research in both music and education, we have many databases that will provide access to different kinds of information. The goal of this video is to introduce you to where you can find many of those resources from the library's database page. In particular, this video will demonstrate searching in the database ERIC, a great tool for education research, to find scholarly peer-reviewed articles on a topic.

Please note: our new login page still uses your Gordon username and password for access. Enter that information in the two boxes provided and you are in!

Having trouble playing the video? Watch here on the Jenks Library YouTube channel.

D. Start with these library databases.

Music & Education Databases

EDUCATION

ERIC This link opens in a new window
ERIC is an EBSCO hosted database specifically focused on topics in education. Use this database to search for articles, research reports, and digest from education-related journals and the U.S. Department of Education.
Professional Development Collection This link opens in a new window
Specialized information designed for educators, professional librarians and education researchers. Includes more than 450 full-text journals, of which nearly 300 are peer-reviewed.

MUSIC

Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window
Naxos Music Library is a comprehensive classical music online streaming library containing titles spanning medieval music to modern, jazz, electronic, world music, pop, rock, and more. It includes composer biographies, glossary of musical terms, opera libretti and synopses, and more. Use this database to search for audio files and more across a wide range of musical genres.

OTHER

Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Ultimate offers access to resources cited in key subject indexes. The combination of academic journals, magazines, periodicals, reports, books and videos meets the needs of scholars in virtually every discipline ranging from astronomy, anthropology, biomedicine, engineering, health, law and literacy to mathematics, pharmacology, women’s studies, zoology and more.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A collection of core scholarly journals, many going back to the first volume. Emphasis is on back issue coverage and does not include the current 3-5 years, unless Gordon has a current subscription to the journal. JSTOR provides long term preservation for journals.

E. What Does Peer Reviewed Mean?

What Does Peer Reviewed Mean?

An article is considered "peer-reviewed" if it has been reviewed by scholars and professionals within the field of study for the article. This process involves reviewing how the article was written and the research involved. The review process involves an extensive exchange between the review panel and the author(s), and the article can only be considered for publication in a scholarly journal once it has been approved.

Ask yourself the following questions about the article you are viewing to determine if it is peer-reviewed:

Does the article contain an abstract?
Does the article contain a full bibliography?
Are the author(s') credentials easily identified?
Does the journal contain little to no advertising?
Is the language of the article intended for an informed
audience?
Is the article lengthy?
Does the journal description include the words "peer-reviewed" or "editorial process"?

Finding Peer-Reviewed Articles

Many of our databases make the process of locating peer-reviewed information very easy for us by providing a "peer-reviewed" search filter on the search screen. This search filter is automatically selected in our EBSCO databases.

Peer-Reviewed Sources
Use this information sheet for criteria to look for in a peer-reviewed article.