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Searching for Music Resources: A Step-by-Step Guide

A guide to how to find things in the Music Library - step-by-step, no stress, and online!

Searching for Music Resources at UNC

A blue banner showing a webpage with a magnifying glass on it zeroing in on a music-note symbol, with the text "Searching for Music Resources"

This guide will walk you through using any of UNC's three search portals - Summon, Encore, and Source - to find materials at Skinner Music Library.

All three searches work together on UNC's library website. Think of them like layers; each one can search on their own, but they are layered on top of one another, overlapping as they search for various items. Each one is more useful for searching for certain types of materials.

The UNC Summon Logo, depicting a book's pages turning into a paper airplaneSUMMON searches everything University Libraries holds, from books to recordings to journal articles to online materials. If you are looking for scholarly articles or online resources, or just want to get the "big picture" of a subject, Summon is the way to go.
 

The Encore search logo, with the word "encore" in blue and a play symbol in the center of the OENCORE searches primarily items that are held locally in the library, such as books, scores, or recordings. It allows more fine-tuned narrowing down of your search, so if you know exactly what you're looking for, Encore is a great way to save time on your search.
 

The UNC Source Logo, depicting the pages of a book turning into an origami craneSOURCE searches the same items as Encore, but allows you to zero in on items specifically at either Michener Library or Skinner Music Library, and provides extra options such as searching by call number or browsing related lists. If you know your subject but not a specific item, Source is a great place to start.