From the Jerwood Library, Trinity Laban for postgraduate Teaching Musician students learning to carry out research and find resources in other libraries.

1. TEACHING MUSICIAN
PERSONAL PROJECT
LIBRARY RESEARCH SKILLS
Edith Speller
Jerwood Library of the Performing Arts

2. AIM
To help you develop advanced research skills, enabling you
to both carry out a full literature search and locate items
from references found during your search.

3. STRUCTURE OF SESSION
1. Research action plan with brainstorming exercise
2. Guided literature search
3. Keeping up-to-date
4. Finding books/articles

4. RESEARCH ACTION PLAN

5. RESEARCH ACTION PLAN

6. GUIDED LITERATURE SEARCH

7. QUICKSEARCH
• Find online recordings and scores of pieces
• Find research including inter-disciplinary information: e.g.
music, drama, dance, education and psychology.
• Access QuickSearch via Links menu on Moodle > Library
Links. From home, enter your TL login (same as Moodle).

8. Example topic: What strategies exist for teaching cello
to primary school children?

9. SEARCH TECHNIQUES
• To find an exact phrase put it in “double quotes”
• To find words that start the same way enter the shared
stem of the words with an asterisk. E.g. ‘learn*’ will find
learn, learning, learner etc.
• Use Source Type and Discipline filters to make results
more relevant to your needs.
• Once you find something useful, click its title and read
the abstract (summary) and look at the subjects
assigned to it. Add any useful terms to your mindmap.

10. • Broader range of academic writing –
try it after QuickSearch
• Alternative source of full text
• ‘Cited by’ – find more recent
research that cited the research you’ve
already found.
GOOGLE SCHOLAR

11. KEEPING UP-TO-DATE

12. KEEPING UP-TO-DATE
SAVING SEARCHES
If you save searches you can return to them later and
adjust them.
• QuickSearch: Share link at top of results > Add search to
folder. Requires a free EBSCOhost/Google account.
EMAIL ALERTS
Many databases can be set up to email you regularly when
new items match your search.
• QuickSearch: Share link at top of results > Create an
alert > Email/RSS. Requires a free EBSCOhost/Google
account.

13. FINDING BOOKS/ARTICLES

14. Keithley, Erica. ‘Communicating emotion in piano performance: Nuances used
in expert and intermediate-level performances’, PhD diss., University of
Oklahoma, 2004.
Keithley, Erica. ‘Communicating emotion in piano performance: Nuances used
in expert and intermediate-level performances’, PhD diss., University of
Oklahoma, 2004.
Kratus, John. ‘The role of subversion in changing music education’, in Music
education: Navigating the future, ed. Clint Randles. New York: Routledge,
2015. 340-346.
Kratus, John. ‘The role of subversion in changing music education’, in Music
education: Navigating the future, ed. Clint Randles. New York: Routledge,
2015. 340-346.
McHugh-Grifa, Abigail. ‘A comparative investigation of mental practice
strategies used by collegiate-level cello students’, Contributions To Music
Education. 38/1 (2011), 65-79.
McHugh-Grifa, Abigail. ‘A comparative investigation of mental practice
strategies used by collegiate-level cello students’, Contributions To Music
Education. 38/1 (2011), 65-79.
IDENTIFYING DIFFERENT TYPES OF SOURCE
Journal article.
Chapter from a book
Dissertation

15. FINDING FULL TEXT: WHERE TO SEARCH
• Journal article
– Look up the article title in QuickSearch, then the journal
title in Journal Finder
– Then Google Scholar
– Then Suncat for holdings in other libraries
• Book / book chapter
– Search for the book title in both Jerwood and Laban
catalogues
– Then Google Scholar/Books
– Then Copac for holdings in other libraries
• Dissertation
– Try QuickSearch and library catalogue
– Then Google Scholar
– Then ask the library for help

16. ACCESSING OTHER LIBRARIES
• Find out which other libraries have it using:
– Suncat: a union catalogue (searches lots of
catalogues at once) for journal holdings, covering
over 100 libraries.
– COPAC: a union catalogue for books and other
materials, covering over 90 libraries in the UK.
• You can then visit the library that’s got it if you are
eligible to do so, e.g. via SCONUL Access - access to
many academic libraries with specialist collections, e.g.
Goldsmiths, UCL Institute of Education.
• Or ask us to borrow the item on Inter-Library Loan for a
small fee per article/book.

17. SUMMARY
You should now be able to…
• Create a research action plan, including building and
modifying a search vocabulary.
• Perform a literature search.
• Evaluate references found for their potential use –
especially if it involves time/effort/money to access the
material.
• Know how to locate and obtain items not available
online/in the Jerwood Library.
• Save references found during searches for future use.
• Know where to get help with finding information.

18. ANY QUESTIONS?
• Contact us to make an appointment for one-to-one support
with finding material for your project.
• Email: jlpa@trinitylaban.ac.uk
• Web chat via Library catalogue or Jerwood Library Info on
Moodle
• Twitter: @jerwoodlib
• Facebook: facebook.com/jerwoodlibrary
• Blog: jerwoodlibrary.wordpress.com
• Research workbooks are available on Moodle – visit the
general Jerwood Library information page under Library links.
We particularly recommend Beyond the Basics and Finding
full-text in the Online Resource Guides section.
• These slides are on your Personal Project Moodle page.
Links for using other libraries are on the TM Library page.

19. ONE-TO-ONES: A SATISFIED CUSTOMER!
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