Research Guides: Where to Find Resources (by type): Audio + Sound

Where to Find Audio (CD's, Cassette tapes, LP records)

The Library Search is a Great Starting Point for Audio!

Use the search box below to search almost everything the library has to offer, or visit the library homepage. The library has CD, Audiocassette, and Vinyl collections available, as well as streaming audio collections.

Consider starting with these preset search parameters for audio:
Finding Audio: Popular Music (newest first) | Avant-garde Music (newest first) | Audio books (newest first)

Music / Sound Databases

You can locate audio in the Flaxman catalog, but there are other library Databases you may consider searching. Most of databases listed below are useful for find magazine articles about music and sound.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Includes the magazines and journals Popular Music & Society, Psychomusicology: Music, Mind & Brain, Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies, Rolling Stone, The Fader, and more.
Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
Includes the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Grove Dictionary of Jazz, New Grove 2001, Grove Opera, and Grove Jazz.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Includes the journals Black Music Research Journal, Computer Music Journal, Leonardo Music Journal, Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture, and more
Rock's Backpages This link opens in a new window
Archive of music journalism featuring 28,000+ articles on artists from Aaliyah to ZZ Top, on all genres from rockabilly to hip hop, by music writers of the last 50 years.

All Available Music / Sound Databases (from Databases A-Z)

Music / Sound Websites

BBC Sound Effects Library This link opens in a new window
Sound archive freely available to download over 16,000 sound effects for “personal, educational or research purposes” from animal sounds to rattling window frames. Audio CDs of BBC sound effects are also available in the Flaxman Library.
All About Birds This link opens in a new window
Brings together 4 renowned ornithological reference works published by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Covering the life histories of all breeding birds. Includes images, video, sound files, full-text articles.

Creative Audio Archive (CAA)
The Creative Audio Archive (CAA) is a Chicago based center for the preservation and investigation of innovative and experimental sonic arts and music. CAA is an initiative of the Experimental Sound Studio (ESS), formed in response to growing concerns over the general state of historical preservation of non-mainstream audio, in particular, recordings, print, and visual ephemera related to avant-garde and exploratory sound and music of the last five decades.
Experimental Sound Studio
Experimental Sound Studio is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization dedicated to artistic evolution and the creative exploration of sound.
Florasonic
Florasonic is a unique program that commissions composers and artists to make new site-specific music and audio art installations for the Fern Room of the Lincoln Park Conservatory, a turn-of-the-century greenhouse.
Lampo
Founded in 1997, Lampo promotes and supports artists working in experimental music and intermedia, by commissioning, producing and presenting special projects and performances. Lampo brings artists from across the U.S. and around the world to Chicago, and offers the public rare opportunities to experience their pioneering work in person.
Pitchfork
UbuWeb: Sound
UbuWeb is a completely independent resource dedicated to all strains of the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts. All materials on UbuWeb are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights belong to the author(s).
Wire: adventures in modern music
Wire: Audio