Databases organize and make accessible information you often can't find using a search engine like Google. Online "reference books" such as AllMusic.Com and Grove Music Online operate like encyclopedias; they contain entries on relevent topics (for example, musicians, music styles) which are usually cross-referenced with hyperlinks. It's easy to find what you're looking for in these databases, and even easier to get sucked in for hours! Article databases allows users to search for articles in journals and magazines on specific subjects. The following databases provide full bibliographic citations, not the full text of the article itself. To learn how to find the articles themselves, visit the library's how to page.

*Databases marked with an asterisk may only be accessed on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus network, or through the use of the UNC Proxy Server. For more information, please see the Library's proxy server help page.

All Music Guide is a searchable database of most commercially available recorded music. Search for an artist, album, song, style, or label, or browse their unique music maps, articles, and glossary. Based on the information from the All Music Guide book series, this free online resource is incredibly robust and keeps advertising to a minimum.

*American Slavery: A Composite Autobiography, an archive of slave narratives, provides the opportunity to learn about the music of American slaves through primary sources. Relevent Subject Index terms include:

• 'Spirituals'
• 'Slave Music and Songs (General)'
• 'Folklore'

Documenting the American South is a digital archive of sources on the South and its culture reaching back to the 17th century. Based here at UNC, it focuses on the culture and history of North Carolina, the Civil War, and Slavery, through personal narratives and other primary sources.
Relevent searchable subject headings include:

• African Americans -- Music.
• Folk music -- Southern States.
• Folk music -- United States.
• Slavery -- Southern States -- Songs and music.
• Slavery -- United States -- Songs and music.
• Slaves -- Southern States -- Songs and music.
• Slaves -- United States -- Songs and music.
• Spirituals (Songs) -- Southern States.
• Spirituals (Songs) -- United States.

*Grove Music Online is the online, searchable version of the 29 volume New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, with quarterly updates and additions of new material. Search by genre, artist, region, etc.; define musical terms; cross-reference.

Ibiblio, a digital archive based at UNC, hosts (among all sorts of other things):

• NC Folk Artists
• Bawdy Ballads and Far Fetched Folklore: An Oral History of Rural North Carolina
• Discography of Bluegrass Sound Recordings, 1942-
• Folk Music Index
• The Home for Country Western Dance and Dancers
• National Hollerin' Contest in Spivey's Corner, NC

*International Index to Music Periodicals indexes articles about music in popular magazines and scholarly journals, and provides citations and abstracts for each.

The Traditional Ballad Index: An Annotated Bibliography of the Folk Songs of the English-Speaking World
This index allows users to search for information about traditional English-language ballads such as John Henry and Tom Dooley. Information includes author (if known), historical background, and other notes. For keyword searches, consult the keyword guide to search more precisely.

last updated 11 March 2004 by Jessica F. Kem