Music Librarian
How to approach citing archival collections and items from them
From Turabian, A Manual for Writers, 9th ed., p. 199-201: "Documents from physical collections of unpublished manuscripts involve more complicated and varied elements than published sources. In your citations, include as much identifying information as you can, format the elements consistently, and adapt the general patterns outlined here as needed. Elements to include and their order: If possible identify the author and date of each item, the title or type of document, the name of the collection, and the name of the depository. In a note, begin with the author's name; if a document has a title but no author, or the titles is more important than the author, list the title first."
How to think about materials on microfilm
Just because an item is on microfilm, that doesn't mean that it's actually an unpublished manuscript document! In addition to unpublished manuscripts, materials on microfilm can include published - but fragile - books, libretti, and scores. In these cases, a librarian or archivist may have created the microfilm to preserve the physical copy. Always check the beginning and the end of the microfilm's contents for publication information. If the item is a published book, score, or journal article, use the examples on the relevant tabs of this guide to format your citation.
If you're not sure how to handle a citation for something on microfilm, contact Jessica Abbazio, Music Librarian, at jabbazio@umn.edu for help!
Individual archival documents (manuscripts, letters, etc.)
Notes:
- Not all manuscript sources have been scanned and made available online! If you can find a digital version, include the URL. If not, you can leave this out of your citation.
Footnote template:
10. Author/Composer First Name Last Name, “Title of document,” additional contributor role First Name Last Name, date, location of item, URL (if available).
Example of a real footnote:
10. Johann Sebastian Bach, "Sechs Suonaten | Pour le Viola de Basso. | par Jean Sebastian | Bach: | pos. | Johann Peter Kellner. Svitte 1. in G ♯," copyist's manuscript created by Johann Peter Kellner, 1726, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung, https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht/?PPN=PPN779693876&PHYSID=PHYS_0257.
Bibliography entry template:
Example of a real bibliography entry:
TIP: Using RISM to locate manuscript sources for music?
If you're using RISM to search for manuscript sources (and digital scans of these items, which are sometimes made available by libraries and archives!), you can find much of the information you need to create your citations in the RISM records for individual items:
