Smile! It's Your Music History Essay

A couple of weeks ago, the Whittaker Library shared some helpful tips for our first and second year music students here at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  We know you've all been assigned essays, and we're keen to ensure that students are equipped to get the most out of our e-resources - at a time where you need lots of information but may not actually be on campus.  We thought we'd share these postings again, so they're easy to find when you need them.

• For our 1st Year Music students - here's a blogpost just for you -Whittaker Library Helps Dispel 1st Year Music History Essay Anxiety
• For our 2nd Year Music students - here's yours! Craft a Great Music History Essay - Delight Your Tutors!
• 3rd Year Music students - technically, you're on your own, demonstrating your maturity and self-sufficiency.  Give it a go!  But please do come and see us or drop us an email if you need any help sourcing or accessing information. 

HELP WITH RESOURCES FOR RCS MUSIC HISTORY 2 ESSAY

If you're a 2nd year music student at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, then you just got lucky!  We’ve been looking at the Music History 2 essay questions to see how our online resources could help.  Here are some general hints.  We'll be emailing more hints soon.

A   You can often find a score online.   Use your computer’s snipping tool to copy little excerpts for examples.  We subscribe to Alexander Street Press Classical Scores Library (accessible online wherever you are), and Library Music Source (accessible on site).  You probably already know about IMSLP (the Petrucci library), too.

B    You can look for information in Groves Dictionary – it’s part of Oxford Music Online.  Check our e-resources page.  http://www.rcs.ac.uk/about_us/libraryandit/databases/ 

C   You can also find useful information on JSTOR.  Be clever with your searching – if the essay is asking you to link concepts (eg Liszt and literature), make sure your search terms reflect that.  Check our e-resources page.  http://www.rcs.ac.uk/about_us/libraryandit/databases/

D   If a piece of music has an English title as well as its original title, search both!

E   There’s nothing wrong with older literature, if it informs the question you are answering. However, do remember that opinions may have changed, if an article is very old indeed!!

F   Search keywords in our catalogue.  http://capitadiscovery.co.uk/rcs/  Start with a precise search (eg the composer’s name and  perhaps the piece) then broaden it if you don’t get what you need.  If you don’t find the right information under a composer’s name, try MUSIC HISTORY - and maybe the century you’re interested in.  If you’re off-site, limit your results to e-books to see if there’s anything you can read online. 

G  You can stream music by Naxos or Alexander Street Press Music Library.  Check our e-resources page.  http://www.rcs.ac.uk/about_us/libraryandit/databases/ 

H   There are also plenty of electronic journals on the e-journals page.  Start by looking for suitable journals under the List of Music Titles.  http://www.rcs.ac.uk/about_us/libraryandit/e-journals/

We're the very helpful Whittaker Library, here to help students and staff of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with their information requirements.

What Makes A Good Blog? Twelve Tips for Library Bloggers

WHAT MAKES A GOOD BLOG?

We looked at our blog traffic over the past month.  How many people actually visited, and were there any patterns?  Well yes, actually – there were!

1. The bottom line is, you have to keep posting.  If you don’t post, the visitors don’t visit.  The more you post, the more they visit. 
2. Schedule your blogposts! You can schedule in Blogger and Wordpress.  This helps take care of days when you know you won’t be around to post.
3. Be sure to share your posts on Twitter, and use something like Bufferapp to schedule tweets too:  http://bufferapp.com
4. Take care with headings.  Once you’ve uploaded your post, the hyperlink won’t change. So use catchy headings with words that Google can find; you can change the blogpost heading later if you need to.
5. Always add keywords/tags.  Try to make these consistent over time.
6. Know your audience – what makes them tick?
7. Know your product – we’re a library, so our main concern is to promote physical and electronic resources, not to mention our ever-helpful library staff! 
8. In a library context, e-resources attract interest.  So does copyright, interesting new stock, musicians’ health, music competitions, creativity, learning and research skills, and employability. 
9. Weblinks are good.  Readers want to know where they can find more.
10. Don’t try to write a scholarly essay, and keep the blogposts a reasonable length.
11. Have a conversational tone: expressions like “the musicologists amongst us” are not inclusive, and won’t really even attract the musicologists!  You want readers to react with, “Hey, this is for me!”, and not “Oh, stuffy academics again”. 
12. Be the same age as your audience.  No, that’s silly – obviously we’re kidding!  Your audience could be any age.  Students can be any age.  Staff can be marginally older than students, or heading for retirement.  You cannot be the same age as your audience, but you can try to ensure that your posts will appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

Music Clout offers Advice on Overcoming Stagefright

Naturally, our performers learn to combat stage-fright - it's an essential skill if you're going to get on in the world of music or theatre. 

Overcoming Stage Fright

Nonetheless, these tips from Music Clout might be worth passing on to a pupil or less experienced performer - a good short summary on how to beat those nerves!

Citing catalogue links

You know when you look up a library book, and want to share the catalogue hyperlink? The link works fine, but it doesn't look pretty?

You’re doing the right thing. However, you can use a hyperlink abbreviating website like tiny.url to make it look nicer:- http://tinyurl.com/MusicInBali

Bookmark this link for future reference:- http://tinyurl.com/

Just another useful tip from the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

The Guardian Culture Professionals Network seeks career tips

Whittaker can't help sharing this one!  If you have tips about careers in the arts and culture, there's a chance to share it with the Guardian Culture Professionals Network - here.  The network is a great way to keep in touch with what's happening in the sector.  Who knows, your tips about getting started in music, drama or ballet might end up on the website.

Culture careers - share your tips