Musicians & bands

Fuel was scarce in France during World War I. You had to be very rich to obtain coal to heat your home. Debussy, offered to pay his coal merchant with an original composition. The merchant went home with Debussy’s last composition, appropriately named “Evenings Lighted by Burning Coals.”

When you are asked to do an assignment on a musician or band there are years and years of musical history you could choose an artist from. Do exercise caution whilst researching because there will be a lot of misleading information out there.

When searching, a good place to start would be to use the artist or band name you have chosen.

When looking at books avoid any titles with the words “unauthorized” or “unofficial” in the title, the facts in titles like these have not necessarily been checked thoroughly.

If you are looking at online material look for biographies on the official artist page. Do not trust information that is not from reliable sources and certainly do not look at magazine or newspaper articles.

If the artist you are researching is older and therefore does not have an ‘official’ website, for example French composer Claude Debussy, you could look him up in an encyclopaedia like Britannica or World Book.

If you are looking at online sites that look like legitimate biography websites make sure to check who created the website. There are some websites out there that advertise as biography sites, but are created by magazines or television networks. Instead try the library’s Reference Databases Biography in Context.

Incas

 

The Incan Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. There is a lot of information about the history of the Incan Empire and we are going to look at the best ways to find it.

There are a few keywords that could help you find information in your search; these include:

·         Inca

·         Incan Empire

·         Ancient Americas

·         History Peru

If you are looking for more specific information you need to use specific terms. For example if you wanted information on a particular area you might use the name for that area; like, ‘Machu Picchu’ or ‘Cusco’ or 'Cuzco'. If you wanted to know about things like religion, cuisine or war I would suggest adding those terms after the word ‘Inca’ or ‘Incan’. We have some fantastic physical resources in the library you can look at.

If you go to the Information desk online webpage on the Library website you will see that you have access to encyclopaedias like World Book and Britannica. In fact there is some great information on the Incan people on the Britannica website. http://www.britannica.com/topic/Inca

If you then go to the Reference Databases webpage try using the word “Inca” to search in the databases Ancient and Medieval History and Modern World History, these have some great information.

Some websites you might find useful

Gold and the Incas http://nga.gov.au/Exhibition/Incas/
This is the webpage related to an exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia. It has some fascinating artefacts and information. Make sure you click the ‘Learn more’ button to access the full information and catalogue for this exhibition.

The page Incas from the British Museum also has some great information. http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/cultures/the_americas/incas.aspx

The Incas http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/incas/collier.htm This page has some fantastic historical information about the Incan Empire.

The Inca Empire http://mysite.du.edu/~ajenniso/IncaEmpire.html

This website has some interesting historical information on the people as well as some of the places.