This page will help you get more out of your Library resources for your assignments, projects and dissertations in Music & Sound Technologies.

Research independently

The resources listed here will help you to make a good start with your research.

Search for a wide range of sources including e-books, articles, reports and images.

Useful for getting a basic understanding of your topic.

You can find ebooks on Discovery, but you can search the full text of the books by using the individual services. 

  • Ebook Central

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Access around 200,000 ebooks across all subject areas.

  • Music and sound studies

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Containing over 120 titles, the Music and Sound Studies e-book collection pushes at the edges of how music is discussed. Its innovative ethnomusicology titles find new links between music and culture, and its groundbreaking sound studies titles establish a new framework for theorizing the larger context of how we listen. The collection also includes essential works in jazz studies and popular music studies, biographies and memoirs of prominent musicians, and essay collections by important music critics. Addressing musical cultures from around the world, this interdisciplinary collection considers music and sound broadly, taking into account all their social, cultural, physiological, and technological dimensions.

  • Sound studies

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    An e-Book collection which includes scholarly handbooks, monographs and textbooks covering a range of topics, including sound art, the anthropology of sound, sonic methodologies, sonic histories and more.

Searching beyond the basics

This section lists resources for specific purposes.

Find journal and magazine articles. These include up-to-date publications.

  • Business Source Complete

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Academic peer-reviewed journal articles, professional publications and more across all business topics. 

    Advanced options in Business Source Complete video

  • Engineering Village

    Engineering Village consists of three databases: GEOBASE, GeoRef and Compendex. GEOBASE indexes journal literature across the earth sciences from 1980-present. GeoRef covers geological literature from North America (1785-present), plus geological literature from the rest of the world (1933-present). Compendex is the most comprehensive bibliographic database of scientific and technical engineering and computing research available. 

  • Science Direct

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Access 1000s of Elsvier articles and book chapters from our subscribed content on scientific, technical, and medical research.

Find (mostly) non-current, full-text, journal and magazine articles.

  • Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive

    Access the full text of popular entertainment industry magazine archives, including New Musical Express, Variety, The Stage and Screen International.

  • JSTOR

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Provides access to more than 12 million journal articles, books, images, reports and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
    Watch this video for great tips.

  • Cecilia

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    An on-line guide to music collections in archives, libraries and museums in the UK and Ireland.

  • Sage Research Methods

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Access books and videos about quantitative and qualitative research methods and many more social science research topics. Use the Tools drop-down at the top centre of the screen to access a handy Project Planner which is full of FAQs about what you need to consider at each stage in a project/dissertation. Tools also contains a Methods Map which is ideal for quickly finding details about a particular research method.

For newspaper archives visit the Visual Culture subject page.

  • Nexis Uni

    Full text articles from many news sources and trade journals both UK and international. Archives sometimes stretching back to the mid 1980s. For use in the UK only.

  • PressReader

    PressReader lets you access UK and international newspapers, plus a wide range of magazine content. Everything is full colour with archives varying in length depending on the publication.

    Login guidance

  • IBISWorld

    Provides a comprehensive collection of industry reports on very specific sectors in the UK as well as further specialist reports. Also covers industries globally, in the US, China, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

  • Statista: the portal for statistics

    Access to more than a million statistics from many different sources. Useful for finding industrial, economic and consumer market statistical trends.

  • Archives of Sexuality and Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Explore 20 collections of documents, including minutes of meetings and conferences, press releases, fliers, brochures, press clippings, US government memoranda and reports, private correspondence, surveys and photos.

    Watch this quick introduction to the archive - please note we only subscribe to Part 1 which contains British material as well as coverage from North America.

  • Disability in the Modern World

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Disability in the Modern World: History of a Social Movement encompasses an international set of resources to enrich study in a wide range of disciplines from media studies to philosophy.

  • Popular Culture in Britain and America: 1950-1975

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Explore documents, fanzines, photos and newsreel footage to help understand these key decades when consumer culture and pop music took off and protest movements were big news.

Documentaries, films, music.

  • Audio Network

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    High quality production music for TV, film, advertising and corporate video. Pre-cleared for worldwide and multi-platform use. Students should contact their course leaders in order to set up an account.

  • BoB: On demand TV and radio for education

    An archive of UK television and radio programmes from free to air channels (1998 onwards). For use in the UK only. Find some great tips about how to use BoB in these short videos.

  • Kanopy

    A unique collections of films including award-winning documentaries, training films and theatrical releases on every topic imaginable. Content can be searched or browsed.

  • Naxos Music Library

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    A recorded music database of more than 1 million tracks. Genres include classical, jazz, folk, blues, nostalgia, world, folk, Chinese, rock and pop.

    This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

    You have two ways to access the login instructions:

    1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

    2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

    View restricted access information for resources

    To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.

  • Naxos music library: Jazz

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    A library of Jazz with information about artists and songwriters. also with a New&News section.

    This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

    You have two ways to access the login instructions:

    1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

    2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

    View restricted access information for resources

    To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.