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Music Theory

A guide for undergraduate and graduate researchers of music theory

InfoKat Discovery

InfoKat Discovery allows you to quickly search multiple UK library resources simultaneously.

InfoKat Discovery searches the majority of UK resources including books, journal articles, dissertations, government documents, archives and special collections, images, maps, videos, music and open access content.

InfoKat Discovery DOES NOT include ALL of the journal articles available through our databases.  If you are doing very specialized searching or wish to limit your search to a particular database, you can select the database of your choice using the UK Libraries' Databases search.

Be sure to not the library location and call number!  While most books on music are in the Little Fine Arts Library, some are in other UK Libraries.

If Young Library is the location, check the Young Library map to determine the floor and wing for each call number.

If a book is located in another campus library, be sure to note the library location, call number, and check the map of the libraries locations and the hours for each library.

Use InterLibrary Loan to borrow a book or score that UK does not own.

Login to ILLiad.

Don't feel like walking over to Young in the rain?

       Person being carried by another through muddy waters.

Book & Media Express offers the delivery of books from any campus library and media materials from the Young Audio Visual Services Media Library to a different campus library. It also provides delivery to pick-up locations for patrons needing any materials in InfoKat with the location "Storage - Click on Requests and select Book Express."

  • Access to the Book & Media Express service is through InfoKat Discovery.
  • From any record in InfoKat Discovery, click the Requests button to place a Book & Media Express order.

Search InfoKat Discovery

If you couldn't find what you were looking for in InfoKat Discovery, here are some suggestions:

1.  Ask for help (searching InfoKat Discovery can be tricky, especially for music!)

2.  Try WorldCat. There's a link to request any item through InterLibrary Loan.

3.  Go directly to ILLiad.

4.  Students, faculty, and staff at UK can also request items on loan from CRL (Center for Research Libraries) through ILLiad. 

♦Keyword Searching

This is the default search. A keyword search will search all the words you have entered, but not necessarily in the same order.

♦Keyword Searching & Boolean Operators

Make the most of your search by using Boolean operators and other search strategies listed below:

♦AND  OR  NOT (capitalize these terms in InfoKat Discovery)

Use AND to find records with both terms  haydn AND beethoven

Use OR to find records with one or both terms (this is a broad search!)  musicals OR operas

Use NOT to exclude terms "chicago symphony" NOT solti (note that you can combine other search strategies with Boolean operators)

♦Phrases

Use quotes to search phrases → "hip hop"

Use quotes to search song and aria titles → "voi che sapete"   "new york state of mind"

♦Wildcards

Use a question mark to search a single character → sonata? will find sonata and sonatas

Use an asterisk to search more than one character → symphon* will find symphonysymphoniessymphonic, Symphonien

♦Advanced Search

Use the Advanced Search to search for authors, composers, performers, titles, and subjects.

For title searches drop initial articles in ALL languages.

For musical titles you'll get better results if you search using the title in the original language (check Grove's).

Search song and arias titles here and in the Keyword Search using quotations.

♦Browse Search

Use the Browse Search for subjects, authors, titles, and LC call numbers.