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Musicals & Musical Theater: A Guide to Research and Resources: Search Strategies

Locate online and print resources, including key databases, catalogs, and websites, about musicals and music theater.

Locating Printed & Electronic Books

All books cited in this guide are available in either electronic or printed form, with some in both options. To connect to an e-book, click the citation link, and then click on the link under Online in the catalog record, which leads to the book on a publisher or vendor website. In most cases, access is available only to authorized Princeton users. To locate printed books in the Mendel collection, click on "Where to find it" beneath "Location" in the catalog record. E-books sometimes bear dates later than the print but do not necessarily offer corrected or revised texts of the print version.

Call Number Ranges

You can locate and browse books about musical theater and scores and librettos of musicals under the following Library of Congress call numbers in the Mendel Music Library stacks:

  • General and history: ML1711, ML2054
  • Film musicals: PN1995.9 M86
  • Production: MT955
  • Plots: MT95
  • Scores: M1500-M1508
  • Librettos (stage): ML48-50
  • Librettos (film musicals): ML52.65-.7
  • Encyclopedias: ML102.M88
  • Bibliographies: ML128.M78

 

Subject Headings

In the library catalog, using prescribed subject headings will help to zero in on the study and research materials you are seeking. Below are some useful subject headings for musicals that retrieve books, journals, scores, and sound recordings. Use the options in the left sidebar to limit your results by format, language, or date. You can rearrange your results by title or date of publication by using the sort option above the results set:

Catalog Links to Scores & Recordings