Finding Music: Music Catalogs at Yale and Beyond
Search our collections using the following tools:
Orbis
The Online Catalog for most of the library. Orbis contains the Music Library's books, periodical titles, scores, recordings in the Recordings Collection cataloged since 1981 and in the Historical Sound Recordings Collection cataloged since 2006, manuscripts and archival collections cataloged since 1981, microfilm cataloged since 1981, videos, CDROMs, Databases (Library-Licensed online resources). Orbis also contains records for music books, scores, recordings, and videorecordings in other Yale libraries' circulating, reference, and special collections. Consult this advanced tutorial to learn more about searching for music in Orbis.
Finding Aid Database (primary sources at Yale)
The Finding Aid Database contains online finding aids (that is, the detailed listings of folder contents) for the Music Library's and the American Musical Theatre Collection's (AMTC) processed archival collections, as well as collections in the Beinecke Library, Manuscripts and Archives, and the Divinity Library, which also include significant music holdings. Search the Finding Aid Database to find references to special collections holdings that are not listed in Orbis. Eighty of the Music Library's & AMTC's archival collections are also briefly described in the Checklist of Archival Collections. Paper copies of the finding aids are also available for these collections and are housed in the Reference Room.
WorldCat, A catalog of more than 40 million titles in libraries around the world.
RISM: International Repertory of Musical Sources
An international project to catalog music manuscripts, printed editions, and treatises through ca. 1825, listing library locations.
Digital Collections (digitized music-related images)
The Card Catalogs (The Music Library has retained six card catalogs)
Other lists of Library Resources at Yale (sheet music, sound recordings, etc.)