EBSCO's RIPM Jazz Periodicals: Music, History, and Culture

CONTENT Powered by EBSCO and produced by the Répertoire International de la Presse Musicale, the RIPM Jazz Periodicals collection documents the history of jazz music, providing access to unique primary source materials and content from 20th- and 21st-century jazz publications. Updated annually, RIPM Jazz Periodicals includes materials held by the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University—one of the world’s most extensive collections of jazz-related resources. Upcoming updates include the inclusion of additional European publications. The collection provides a unique perspective on the United States in the 20th century, illuminating jazz’s influence on Black history, the civil rights movement, politics, culture, and more. The wide range of topics spans music and 20th-century society (e.g., jazz and the Cold War, segregation and Jim Crow laws, and the rise of rock and roll), entertainment industry news (the recording industry, music in Hollywood, reviews), popular music (blues, country, disco, soul), and music education. Documents include nearly 100,000 photographs and 86,000 reviews of recordings, which provide a glimpse at the world of jazz through the voices of and reactions to musicians. Currently, RIPM Jazz Periodicals offers access to 165 full-text, primary-source journals and 432,000 citation records.

USABILITY The RIPM Jazz Periodicals archive is built on the standard EBSCO platform. Users are presented with a spare, basic search page; they can click the advanced search link to access additional filters and facets. Within the advanced search page, users can search multiple fields, apply Boolean operators, limit results based on full-text availability, exclude discographies, and search by publication name, date, document type, language, or author. Additional search options allow searching by proximity, finding all terms or any terms, and applying SmartText search (pasting a piece of text into the search box and allowing SmartText to determine the best search query). Users can also select from a list of expanders, which includes the option to apply related words, search within the text of an article, and search equivalent subjects. Lastly, users can limit results by publication by selecting from a searchable list of available titles. Beyond this, EBSCO’s “My Dashboard” tool, located in the sidebar, allows users to save projects and results, browse recent activity, view holds and checkouts, set and access journal and/or search alerts, and start a new search. Print content contained in the collection is displayed in high-res PDF format. As of this review, the ability to search within a document is in the works. A document reader is currently available, and audio transcripts can be downloaded in MP3 format. Save, cite, share, download, and print options are also available.

PRICING Pricing for academic institutions is based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to FTE, existing EBSCO databases, consortium agreements, and/or buying groups; contact EBSCO for a customized quotation. Pricing is subject to change based on royalty requirements, etc.

VERDICT RIPM Jazz Periodicals captures a rich and fascinating slice of history and music culture. An excellent resource to support research on 20th-century U.S. history, Black history, entertainment, and music education. This singular primary-source collection is not easily matched.