For 37 years, Ruth Watanabe served as head of the Sibley Library of the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, one of the most outstanding collections of music, books on music, and music recordings of any academic institution in the western world. This volume, published in association with Bärenreiter Verlag, comprises essays devoted to the history, organization, administration, and innovations of the modern music library.

This text has been the standard guide to source literature of music and contains critically annotated listings of over 3,500 key sources. This comprehensive guide to reference sources is organized into chapters by category of source. The text's organization introduces students to a vast array of sources to include: Dictionaries and Encyclopedias; Histories and Chronologies; Sources of Systematic and Historical Musicology; Bibliographies of Music, Music Literature, and Music Business; Reference Works on Individual Composers and Their Music; Catalogs of Libraries and Musical Instrument Collections; Discographies; Yearbooks; Directories; Electronic Resources.

The literature of American music librarianship has been around since the 19th century when public libraries began to keep records of player-piano concerts, significant donations of books and music, and suggestions for housing music. As the 20th century began, American periodicals printed more and more articles on increasingly specialized topics within music studies. Eventually books were developed to aid the music librarian; their publication has continued over the course of nearly a century. This book reflects the great diversity of the literature of music librarianship. The main resources included are items of historical interest, descriptions of individual collections, catalogues of collections, articles describing specific library functions, record-related subjects, bibliographies designed for music library use, literature from Canada and Britain when relevant to U.S. library practices, key discographies, and information on specialized music research. The material is ordered by topic and indexed by author, subject, and library name.

This text has been the standard guide to source literature of music and contains critically annotated listings of over 3,500 key sources. This comprehensive guide to reference sources is organized into chapters by category of source. The text's organization introduces students to a vast array of sources to include: dictionaries and encyclopedias; histories and chronologies; sources of systematic and historical musicology; bibliographies of music, music literature, and music business; reference works on individual composers and their music; catalogs of libraries and musical instrument collections; discographies; yearbooks; directories; electronic resources.

Contains nearly 1000 pages of precise and accessible information on all musical subjects.