Research Guides: Primary sources for creative arts: Music: finding digitized primary sources

Searching for digitized archival materials

WorldCat Discovery (OCLC) This link opens in a new window
A combined catalog for libraries around the world. Use it to request material from other libraries, and pick them up at Brandeis Library.

WorldCat searches for books, articles, and many other resource types, but you can use it specifically to find digitized primary materials following the directions below:

To narrow WorldCat results to digitized materials, click "Show More" under the Format option (in the left margin) and choose "Downloadable Archival Material" (a subset of Archival Material). An archival resource may also be a "Downloadable Image" (a subset of Internet Resource), or "Downloadable Visual Material" (a subset of Visual Material).

Make use of the "Format" options for Music Recordings or Musical Scores to focus your results.
When searching for scores or sound recordings of generic forms of music, use plural instead of singular (quartets, symphonies, masses, motets, etc.)

ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window
Searchable database of unique materials stored in archives across the United States, Canada, Australia, and several other countries.

The primary purpose of this database is to help researchers locate physical archival materials, which can be found in museums, libraries, and archives around the country and the world. You can also use ArchiveGrid to find digitized primary materials by adding some simple code to your search; an explanation follows.

To find archival materials that have been digitized, use the search technique below, which limits results to collection descriptions that include links to digital content ("has_links:1" is librarian code for any item within a search record that includes the sequence "http," indicating content that exists on the Internet, including images, sound recordings, and other online materials).

To narrow search results to those that have links to digital content, add " has_links:1" to your search.
For example: 1918 influenza has_links:1

Access to major digitized archives

HathiTrust Digital Library
The HathiTrust is a digital repository for the nation’s great research libraries. It contains a wealth of scanned out-of-copyright materials, including many important texts for musical research. HathiTrust content, including online versions of print materials owned by Brandeis, can also be found by searching the Brandeis OneSearch Library Catalog.
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HathiTrust brings together the immense collections of partner institutions. HathiTrust was conceived as a collaboration of the thirteen universities of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation and the University of California system to establish a repository for these universities to archive and share their digitized collections including that from the Google Book Search Project.
Internet Archive (IA)
The Internet Archive offers free access to many collections of digitized materials, including books, periodicals, audio, visual, and film. Books published prior to 1923 are available for download, and hundreds of thousands of modern books can be borrowed through the IA's Open Library site.

If you're having trouble finding a digitized copy of a print item, try the Internet Archive -- you'll be surprised by the range of materials you can find there.