Skip to Main Content

MUS 390: European Art Music I: Bibliography

Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Music

Annotated Bibliography

Strictly, a bibliography is a list of books, their authorship, editions, etc. In more general terms, it refers to a list of sources used in researching a topic - books, articles, websites, etc. The information needed to describe an item is its citation, and normally consists of author, title, publisher, place of publication, and date. This same information can be expressed differently depending which style sheet is being used.

An annotation is a summary or evaluation of the contents of a book or article.

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources each with a short descriptive paragraph summarizing, assessing, or reflecting on its contents. The items you choose to include should be directly relevant to your topic and help focus and support your thesis as you begin to write your paper.

For more information and examples, see Purdue's Online Writing Lab.

Turabian Style and Format

The preferred citation format for your essay is:

Turabian, Kate L. A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations: Chicago style for students and researchers. 8th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013.

You can find a copy at Malpass Library at the Reference Desk.

For sample citations:

Zotero

Zotero is a Firefox add-on that can harvest and store citations and then help create a bibliography using any citation style.

Installing Zotero

To install Zotero, go to the Zotero Download page and follow the instructions. You'll know that you have successfully installed the Zotero add-on when you see the word Zotero in the bottom right-hand corner of the browser window.

Using Zotero

When searching a database, look for icons at the right end of the address bar. If Zotero recognizes a single citation, it displays an article (piece of paper); if Zotero recognizes a list of citations, you will see a folder icon.

Single Article:         Single Book:        
List of Citations:       Book Chapter:        Recording:


If you see one of these icons, click on it. If you click on a folder, you may have to select from list. A message will briefly flash in the bottom right-hand corner telling you the citation was saved to Zotero.

Some databases require you to use an Export, Save, or Citation Tools option, which means that you may have to place items in a folder or marked list before exporting. If Zotero is not listed as an export option, look for a "Reference Manager" option.

  • To open up the Zotero software to view your citations, click on the word Zotero in the bottom right hand of the browser window.
  • Create a Collection for related citations in the My Library window on the left. Click on the new folder icon above the pane. Once you have created the Collection folder, you can drag items from the middle pane over to it.
  • Create a bibliography by right-clicking on the desired collection folder, choose "Create Bibliography from Collection" then choose a citation style and output option. The "Copy to clipboard" option allows you to paste it immediately into a Word document.
For more information, see this Zotero Guide.