Music Books & Scores : a Guide to the Collection

Finding Books | Finding Printed Music

Finding Books About Music & Musicians

Reference books

Tip: When searching in JAXCAT you may select Book or Reference book under Limit by material type.

As with other subject areas, the library's books about music and musicians are cataloged and shelved according to the Dewey Decimal system.

The Dewey Decimal system provides that books with similar subject matter will be shelved together, but complete consistency is not always possible because of revisions to the classification scheme. The following shows the basic organization of books about music, with earlier classification numbers indicated in italics.

Finding Printed Music

Tip: When searching in JAXCAT for a specific song, perform a keyword search and enclose the title within quotations, e.g., "star-spangled banner"

Tip: When searching in JAXCAT, you may select Circulating musical score or Reference musical score under Limit by material type.

The Main Library's collection of songbooks includes a wide variety of popular music styles and jazz standards. They are cataloged using the Dewey classification system.

The Main Library's collection of classical scores includes both study and performing editions. They are cataloged using the Library of Congress classification system, which organizes them primarily by performance medium (e.g., solo piano, string quartet, full orchestra, chorus).

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CLASSIFICATION OUTLINE--CLASS M "Music" (PDF, 72KB)