Finding books & ebooks

The Camosun library contains a wide variety of physical and ebooks on music-related topics. Use the tools on this page to start your search. 

As you review your search results, you will notice that records for physical books contain a "call number" and a location. Most music books are located on the second floor of the Lansdowne campus library.

Call numbers

A call number is an address which tells you where a resource is located in a library. All hard-copy resources in a library have a unique call number. Because books are arranged in call number order, you will find books on similar subjects located next to one another – this is a fantastic way to discover books related to your topic that you might not already know about!

Most books in the Camosun Library are arranged by the Library of Congress Classification System. The system uses twenty-one basic classes, each of which is identified by a letter of the alphabet. Most of these alphabetical classes are further divided into more specific subclasses, identified by two-letter, or occasionally, three-letter combinations.

Reading call numbers

Call numbers are read from left to right. In the example below you will see the first part of the book's call number "ML 420" consists of a combination of one or two letters and a number that indicates a specific subject area (M) and its subclass (L). In this example, M is the category for music, and L is the sub-category representing literature on music.

The next part of the call number "M62" identifies a specific title within the range of books on that topic. The following line often represents the author's last name. The first letter is for the first letter of the author's last name (H for Hopkins). The subsequent letters of the last name are turned into a numerical code for easy shelving. The final line, in this case, "2006", is the date of publication.

Resources related to music can be found in the M call number range. 

• M – Music (scores) - Camosun Library does not hold scores in its collection, however students are encouraged to visit the Victoria Conservatory of Music Library to sign out scores from their collection!

• ML – Music Literature

• MT – Music Education

Music literature resources  (including music dictionaries, bibliographies, biographies) are found in the ML call number range.

• ML 90-97 – Writings of musicians, manuscripts, etc.

• ML 100-109 – Dictionaries, encyclopedias

• ML 385-429 – Biographies

• ML 460-1354 –  Musical instruments and instrumental music

Music education materials (including theory, analysis, music education, pedagogy) are found in the MT call number range.

• MT 2-5 – History and criticism of Music Education

• MT 6-7 – Music theory

• MT 40-67 – Composition, Elements and techniques of music

• MT 70-74 – Instrumentation and orchestration

• MT 170-810 – Instrumental techniques

• MT 820-949 – Singing and voice

Ebooks and more from Canada Commons

The Canada Commons collection provides content from Canada's scholarly and independent publishers as well as public policy papers from think tanks and government sources. It features a variety of eresources by Indigenous authors and information on Indigenous topics.

Canada Commons collection content is not always represented using the library's Single Search tool. You can access Canada Commons using the links below, or using the A-Z database list to search for the latest holdings in this collection of Canadian eresources.