Keyword Searching
In previous sections we have strongly advised you that the best way to search for most pieces of music is to do an author search and then use the "Locate in results" 
command to find the Uniform Title of the piece; and that a keyword search is often not helpful, or at least will not retrieve all our holdings for a piece.
In this section we discuss those items for which the opposite is true; namely those for which keyword searching can be the best way to retrieve the greatest number of items:
- songs of all types (classical, folk, popular, etc.)
- rock and jazz pieces
- occasionally, some small instrumental and choral works
These pieces are often published in collections or they are on recordings that contain a large number of pieces. In the cataloging of such collections the pieces may not be listed by composer and uniform title; rather, the contents of the entire score or recording are given in a "contents note." After clicking on these examples, click on the tab "More Details" to see "Contents."
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Example 1 M1619 A882 G6 1934 |
Example 2 Cdisc 2856 |
Example 3 Disc 4901 |
To search the contents of a collection, do a "keyword" search on the title of your piece. For example, if you were looking for the song "If God left only you" by John Densmore (as in example 1 above) you would find no listing for Densmore under an "author" search and no listing for the song under a "title" search. Under a "keyword" search you find this score and one other.
Usually the title you find under a "title" search is merely the title of the collection. The title in example 2 above is "Bird: the complete Charlie Parker on Verve." Thus, a title search on "Sweet Georgia Brown" retrieves no records, but a "keyword" search finds 30 items (three scores and 27 recordings.)
The important thing to remember is that you should not assume that the library does not have the piece you want if you have not found it by an "author/uniform title," or a "title" search. Always try a "keyword" search.
