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  Search
 
A keyword search retrieves text from all elements of the sheet music data: song titles, subjects, composer or lyricist name, date, and publisher. The brief records that appear in search results do not display complete data for the song, and will not necessarily show the part of the record in which the keyword appears. Click more info to discover why your search retrieved the record.
 
Single Term honey, sweetie, Philadelphia
Exact Phrase Enclose words in quotes (" ") to find exact phrases:

"honey moon polka", "my sweetie went away", "let me kiss those tears away", "Irving Berlin."
Combining Terms Use "and", "or", and "not" as operators to combine terms, or use the following symbols in place of text: & (and), | (or), ~ (not).

"moon and polka", "kiss and tears ", "Philadelphia and 1885", "Philadelphia and 1885 and Meyer", will retrieve records in which all terms are present.

"mama or papa", will retrieve either term. "baby and mama or papa", will retrieve records containing either the first two terms or the last.

"mama not papa" , "baby not cradle", will exclude records where the second term is present.
Truncating Terms Use % for truncation, or as a wild card.

e.g. "bab%" will retrieve baby, babies, babes, and babbling; "191%" will retrieve all songs published in the decade 1910-1919.
Fuzzy Terms When ? is placed before a term or portion of a term, the query expands to include all terms with similar spellings.

e.g. "?any" will retrieve keywords "Andy, Amy, anybody", etc.
Execution of
Queries
Query expressions are executed in left-to-right order, according to the precedence of operators: not (~) before and (&) before or (|)

But if a query with an operator is enclosed in parentheses, that query is resolved before the following query is executed. Use parentheses to ensure that terms are correctly executed with the appropriate operator,

e.g.(mama or papa) not (autry or vallee) and Chicago

This query will retrieve records in which either mama or papa are mentioned in the title, but which are not by either of the composers named in the second parenthesis, and were published in Chicago.
Browse

 
Explore content by browsing records using controlled fields: characters in title, date of publication, and collection of origin. Large result sets can be easier to manage when sorted in alphabetic order by title. Limit the number of results per page for ease of navigation.
Advanced Search
  The four fields of the Advanced Search screen make complex searches easier by offering drop-down choices of fields and search operators.

This example launches a search for digitized sheet music of songs that contain the word "valentine" in the record or "cupid" in the title, and were not published in Chicago or New York, between 1910 and 1920.

Results of advanced searches can also be sorted using the features available on the Browse screen. Check the Digitized Sheet Music Only box to limit your search to sheets that have been digitized.

Using Search Results
 

Four actions are taken from the Search Results screen:

[ access online ] Retrieves the entire sheet music record from the collection of origin.

Note that the record of the sheet music hosted by the OAI service provider may not contain all the information about the music cataloged by the host collection.

The record at the host collection may or may not reference digital copies of the original sheets. To retrieve only records of digitized sheets, choose this option on the Search screen.
[ more info ] Retrieves complete metadata about the sheet music from the UCLA Digital Library repository.

You may attach a note to the record at this point in your search and add it to your current virtual collection.
Add Press the add button to add this record to your current virtual collection.
add with note Press this button to launch the full record and create a note.

Records with attached notes are added to your virtual collection by default.
Register and Sign In
 

You can make a Virtual Collection without registering or signing in, but if you register with a user ID and password the Sheet Music Consortium site will store and display the collections you have saved in a separate list. As a registered user you will also be able to:

lock your collection
protect the notes you have written
choose whether or not to make the contents accessible to other users.

In order to make use of all features of Virtual Collections you must first register. Click the login option on the navigation bar, and then click Register on the login screen. Please supply a login ID, a password, your name, and a valid email address. Your email address will be used for two purposes:

To remind you of your password automatically if you forget.

To supply an email destination for records that you save and send to yourself from the Virtual Collections screen.

Privacy Policy

The Sheet Music Consortium site is maintained and hosted by the UCLA Digital Library Program on behalf of contributing members as a means of sharing knowledge and information about sheet music. We protect the privacy of users, collecting only such information as is necessary to maintain the functions of Virtual Collections. No use will be made of users' identities other than to support this service.

Levels of Access and Protection in Virtual Collections

The following table shows options for creators of Virtual Collections. Only owners of collections can delete them. Collections without owners will be deleted annually.

   

Collection State

View

Edit

Private
NO
NO
Public
YES
YES
View / Edit
< Password 1 >
Requires Password 1
Requires Password 1

View < Password 1 >
or
Edit < Password 2 >

Requires Password 1
Requires Password 2
 

 

 Virtual Collection Tutorial
  Virtual Collections is an application that allows any user to save personal collections of sheet music and attach notes to the records. Added notes do not change the original record, nor do they become a part of it, except within the collection made by the user.

During any search, select and save records by clicking the Add button at the foot of the record on the search results page. These records will be added to your current virtual collection. To view the records you have selected, click current virtual collection on the navigation bar.

With a virtual collection you can use the buttons on the left to —


open

Open a collection that you have previously saved. Please save your current virtual collection before opening another one.

If you have logged in as a registered user, any collections you have saved will appear at the head of the list. Collections made by unregistered users appear in All Other Virtual Collections.

save

Save your current virtual collection with a Title and Curator name. Choose whether your collection will be Private, Public, or Protected.

Private Collections cannot viewed by other users.
Public Collections are open to all users.

Protected Collections are either

Unlocked
(supply a passcode that allows selected users to view only)

or,

Locked
(supply a passcode that allows selected users to edit)

Notes:
If you wish one user group to view only, and another to have rights to edit, you must save the collection twice under different names.

Be careful to record the passcodes you have issued to users. The site does not currently support passcode recovery.

save as If you have already saved this virtual collection, use this option to save the collection with a different title. (see the section on updating a virtual collection below)
email Send the content of your virtual collection to yourself or another recipient by entering the email address. The message will contain URLs that you can store in order to retrieve the records again.
clear Deletes the entire content of this virtual collection.
To delete only one record from the collection, click the clear button below the record.
 
Adding Notes to Records

You can create a note at any time during a search by clicking add a note beneath the record. Any records to which you add a note will be saved by default in your current virtual collection.

You can also attach a note to any record in a Virtual Collection by clicking view full record. This will launch another window. Type the note and save by clicking Add Note. Close the Full Record window to add this record to the current virtual collection. Next time current virtual collection is pressed on the navigation bar this record will display the note. To edit the note, launch the full record again, change the note, and save.

Virtual Collections : Options for Registered Users

When saving a collection, registered users have the following options —

Title
Save the collection with a title (This will allow other users to identify it easily in a list).
Curator
Automatically filled out for registered users.

Choose whether to make your collection private, public, or protected. If you choose "protected" you can now supply a passcode (passcode 1) that will allow other users to view only, or view and edit. If you allow other users to edit, you must supply a second passcode (passcode 2). Users logging on with either passcode 1 or passcode 2 will have the rights you have defined. You may supply both a view passcode and a view/edit passcode if you wish to share your collection with different groups that have different rights.

Viewing and Editing Virtual Collections

When you open a Virtual Collection that you or another user has saved you will receive a message warning that your current virtual collection will be lost. Always save your current virtual collection before opening another.

If you log in as a registered user and click virtual collections on the navigation bar the virtual collections you have saved will be displayed at the head of the list. The Owner Access column displays a View / Edit / Delete command button for each collection, and the Access Level box indicates the state of each collection. As a registered owner you can view, edit, or delete any collection you have made. If you saved your collection as "private" only you can see it; if you saved your collection as "public" any user can view and edit it. Distribute passcode 1 or passcode 2 to other users according to the rights you wish to grant.


The screen also displays All Other Virtual Collections. You can view and edit these when a command button appears in the Public Access column to the right. If the owner of a collection has created a passcode allowing other users to either view (passcode 1) or edit (passcode 2) a collection, a command button appears in the Password Access column. Click one of these buttons and supply the appropriate passcode.

Updating a Virtual Collection

Any records that you add during a search will be added automatically to your current virtual collection. If you have already made a virtual collection (either private or public) and now wish to add records to it, take the following steps:

Open the virtual collection that you wish to update (this collection now becomes your current virtual collection).

Search for additional items that you wish to add using any of the search features.

Click add on any record to add this record to the collection that has already been saved with a title.

When you have finished adding records you may either save this collection again with the original title, or, by clicking the save as button, give the altered collection a different title.

last revised August 10, 2003