Find Digital Collections
- UC Libraries and Beyond: Advanced SearchFrom the format menu, select Internet Resource, and search for online collections using keywords that describe your topic.
- OAIsterA union catalog of digital resources. The search engine allows limiting by resource type (text, audio, image, etc.).
- CalisphereThe University of California's free public gateway to more than 150,000 digitized primary sources.
- Library of Congress Performing ArtsA guide to the vast performing arts collections of the Library of Congress, including many digitized resources.
- Music Treasures ConsortiumDigital collections of music manuscripts and printed materials from the British Library, Harvard, the Library of Congress, Juilliard School, Pierpont Morgan Library, and New York Public Library.
- Online Archive of California (OAC) This link opens in a new windowSearch for primary sources in institutions throughout California, including thousands of digitized materials.
Selected Collections
- American Memory Performing Arts and Music CollectionsOver thirty collections from the American Memory project of the Library of Congress, including the Leonard Bernstein Collection, Aaron Copland, and Irving Fine collections, Southern Appalachian fiddle music, folk music from the Dust Bowl, and several large collections of nineteenth-century sheet music, among many others.
- Bodleian Library Broadside BalladsBroadside ballads are songs that were published in Britain on single sheets (broadsides) and sold for a penny or half-penny from the sixteenth through the early twentieth centuries. This database provides bibliographic access via a searchable Web database to 30,000 of the ballads, along with digitized images of each ballad sheet. Note that most of the sheets do not contain musical notation, but for those that do, sound files are included.
- Cylinder Preservation and Digitization ProjectStream or download thousands of cylinder recordings from the Performing Arts Collections of the UCSB Library. A significant resource for the study of society and culture of the early twentieth century.
- Digital Image Archive of Medieval MusicA portal to worldwide collections of medieval polyphonic music manuscripts from 800 to 1550. Provides access to high-quality images of some of the manuscripts.
- Eastman Scores PublishingPurchase high quality print copies of selected scores recently digitized by Sibley Music Library of the Eastman School of Music.
- English Broadside Ballad ArchiveFrom the Early Modern Center of the English Department at UCSB, the EBBA is "dedicated to mounting online surviving early ballads printed in English," including online images of each ballad, sung versions, and background essays.
- Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings This link opens in a new windowProduced in collaboration with the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive – a world centre for the study of Ethnomusicology – the content within this collection gives access to the cultural and social lives of the source communities represented within the recordings, allowing users a unique insight into the musical traditions of these communities. This collection therefore allows for the study of cultural identity, social norms, religion and ritual, and gender roles, as well as many other themes.
- EVIA Digital ArchiveEVIA = Ethnographic Video for Instruction and Analysis. A digital archive of ethnographic field video for academic use and preservation. Funded by the Mellon Foundation, Indiana University, and the University of Michigan. Contains significant music content.
- Grateful Dead Archive OnlineThe archive includes over 45,000 digitized items from the Grateful Dead Archive at the University of California Santa Cruz Library, and contributed by Grateful Dead fans around the world. Documents the band's activities and influence from 1965 to 1995. Includes recordings, fanzines, photos, posters, T-shirts, videos, and more.
- Hofmeister XIX:19th-Century Music PublicationsA searchable version of the Hofmeister Monatsberichte for 1829-1900, containing over 330,000 records of music publications.
- Johannes Tinctoris: Complete Theoretical WorksThe project will eventually include a complete new edition of the music treatises of the early 15th-century theorist Johannes Tinctoris, along with a complete English translation, and extensive commentary.
- The Juilliard Manuscript CollectionAn online collection of "138 music autograph manuscripts, sketches, engravers' proofs, and first editions, which were donated to the Juilliard School in 2006." Included in the collection is an engraver's proof of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and the original manuscript of Beethoven's Grosse Fuge in his arrangment for piano four hands.
- Leon Levy BAM Digital ArchiveBrooklyn Academy of Music's digital archives include high resolution digitized photos, concert ephemera, film, audio, and other media. Users can browse content or search performances dating from the institution's founding in 1861 and all existing playbills, which provide detailed information about individual performances.
- Mudcat CafeDatabase of over 9,000 folk songs, many with an accompanying audio file.
- New York Philharmonic Digital ArchivesDigitized archives of the New York Philharmonic up to 1970. Contains scores with conductors' marking, including Leonard Bernstein and others; parts marked by orchestra musicians, printed programs from 1943-1970 (including program notes), business and planning folders, and thousands of photographs and other images.
- Open FolkloreA project of the American Folklore Society and the Indiana University Bloomington Libraries to provide online access to a wide variety of materials relevant to the study of folklore, including books, journals, and gray literature.
- Schenker Documents OnlineA critical edition of approximately 130,000 manuscript and typescript writings of Heinrich Schenker, including complete English translations, commentary, and contextual materials.
- Sheet Music ConsortiumA searchable and browsable database providing access to online collections of historic sheet music from the combined holdings of several libraries.
- The Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American RecordingsApproximately 50,000 rare, digitized 78- and 45-rpm commercially produced recordings from the Frontera Collection, the largest repository of Mexican and Mexican American music in existence.
- Tobar an DualchaisThe site contains several thousand hours of digitized Gaelic and Scots recordings, including not only songs but also poetry and stories. The recordings are from all parts of Scotland, from the 1930 on.
- Union SongsTexts and audio files of over 640 songs dealing with work, slavery, protest, unions, and other activisms.