Columbia University, the fifth oldest institution of higher learning in the US, is partnering with the ARChive of Contemporary Music in an effort to integrate the vast resources of the not-for-profit music archive into Columbia's arts programming, and for other educational and scholarly purposes too. The ARChive will work closely with the Columbia University Libraries and the Arts Initiative at Columbia. An initial project of the partnership involves uploading the ARChive's catalog of over two million sound recordings online for both students and the general public to access. Future plans incorporate Columbia's continuing effort to reach out to interested communities for public programming and projects utilizing the vast resources of the ARChive. The ARChive Of Contemporary Music is a music library and research center located in New York City. Their collection spans a variety of genres including be-bop, bluegrass, blues, country, jazz, rap, reggae and rock. In addition to music, the center has collected over three million music-related items such as photographs, press kits, videos and memorabilia dating as far back as 1950. The ARChive is backed by a respectable board of advisers including David Bowie, Jellybean Benitez, Jonathan Demme, Ellie Greenwich, Jerry Leiber, Youssou N'Dour, Lou Reed, Keith Richards, Nile Rodgers, Todd Rundgren, Fred Schneider, Martin Scorsese, Paul Simon and Mike Stoller. http://www.arcmusic.org
