Each entry contains the following information: bibliographic data (see numbers 1 through 9, below), content data (where appropriate; see number 10, below), and descriptive information (see number 11, below).

1. Entry number within this bibliography, in bold.
2. Name(s) of composer(s), author(s) and/or arranger(s) of each volume (where available).
3. Title of work (where available), or brief description of its contents. Titles originally indicated in Cyrillic characters (in Russian, Ukrainian or Serbian language) have been transliterated into the Roman alphabet, following a modified Library of Congress transliteration system for these languages. Transliterations appear within square brackets; translations (occasionally provided) appear within parentheses.
4. Scoring or genre of each work (where available).
5. Primary language(s) of the text of each work (where available).
6. Publication information (place of publication, name of publisher, date of publication, number of pages, dimensions, plate numbers; all included where available).
7. Library of Congress call number (where available).
8. Accession number (which reflects the order number of each volume as assigned by Library of Congress staff at the time of the volume’s acquisition). The first two digits of each accession number indicate the year that each volume was acquired (i.e., “31” indicates “1931”). Each volume of music material in the Russian Imperial Collection was acquired from book dealer Israel Perlstein as a part of several distinct orders: in 1931 (accession number 409629), in 1932 (accession number 426451 [seven titles]), in 1934 (accession numbers 450333 and 450334 [one title each], 455515 [six titles], 455516 [one title], 455517 [two titles]), and in 1935 (accession numbers 470287, 470288, and 470291 [one title each]).
9. Item stamps or handwritten item numbers, applied to individual volumes or to individual titles within a collection by Library of Congress staff at the time of the volume’s/volumes’ acquisition.
10. Contents of each volume, when it contains more than one work. Publication information for individual works within a collection has been indicated.
11. Descriptive information about each volume, including its binding and bookplates, as well as any dedications or annotations (again, any translations of these appear within parentheses) that it may contain.

Russian and Church Slavonic titles and inscriptions have been transliterated according to the Library of Congress’s transliteration system for these languages. Transliterations appear within square brackets.

Translations, appearing in parentheses following their original versions (or transliterations of their original versions), have been provided for most titles and inscriptions appearing in this bibliography.

The musical notation used in the scores listed here generally appears in Western (modern) notation, unless otherwise noted; several volumes otherwise exhibit the neume or modified neume notation traditionally used in Russian Orthodox Church chant.

Most of the individual items held within the musical scores and music-related books in the Library of Congress’s Russian Imperial Collection contain a code, inscribed in pencil, and usually appearing on the verso side of the cover or on the first recto page of the item, which apparently represented the shelf location of the individual item within the various Imperial libraries. This code, usually handwritten, is in three parts, placed vertically in relation to each other. Some items even bear small pre-printed stamps with space allotted for the three elements of this code. The three elements of this code designate an item’s shelf location by its shkaf (bookcase) number (in Arabic numerals), its polka (shelf) number (in Roman numerals), and its “No.” (item number within a specific shelf, designated in Arabic numerals). These original shelf location codes for this material have not been reproduced in this bibliography.