About RIPM's Publications
RIPM produces electronic publications in two general methods: those which are deeply indexed (Annotated) and those which are less indexed (Preservation).
Libraries may subscribe to a combination of the databases below:
- RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals
- RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text
The RIPM Retrospective Index is RIPM’s longest-running publication, begun in 1988 and continuing to this day. The RIPM Index consists of highly-annotated records produced from deep indexing of complete runs of music journals.
There are two fundamental advantages to this method of access: access is provided via an index, rather than the full text alone, and each search term is presented in context. This has the advantage of providing access both to indexing terms and to the context in which the terms appear. For example, if Berlioz writes an harmonic analysis of a musical passage without mention of the word “harmony,” the indexer will supply this term in the content description, and the user, searching for the term “harmony” will locate the pertinent passage even though the searched term does not appear in the text. In addition, titles of sections and subsections, such as those found in review columns, are indexed independently. However, this production method requires an extensive amount of time and is costly. A labor-intensive process, produced by scholars, this necessarily limits the number of journals that can be treated.
- RIPM Preservation Series. European and North American Music Periodicals
- RIPM Jazz Periodicals
The Preservation Series was created to increase the pace at which RIPM can make searchable full-text music journals available and do so in a comparatively economical manner. Access to RIPM Preservation Series content is based upon two methods.
- Full-text searching of the textual content. This method is based on optical character recognition (OCR) technology that permits searching through all words, using Boolean operators to refine searches. Search terms are highlighted on full-text pages.
- Unannotated citations.* These citations contain the title, author, and page number(s) of the cited content. The content includes articles and illustrations but does not include the deep indexing or annotations found in the RIPM Index. Citations in RIPM Jazz have been further enhanced to inculde various subject categories and pertinent added indexing terms.