Universal Music Donating 200K Master Recordings to Library of Congress http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/universal-music-donating-200k-master-69817 A Digital Library Race, and Playing Catch-Up [Free registration may be required] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09stream.html?src=busln Performing Arts Encyclopedia http://www.loc.gov/performingarts/ Music for the Nation http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mussmhtml/mussmhome.html Omaha Indian Music http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/omhhtml/omhhome.html As the nation's repository for published works small and large (and in-between), the Library of Congress remains one of the greatest cultural assets in the United States. This venerable institution received an excellent piece of news this week when the Universal Music Group announced that it would be giving the Library approximately 200,000 metal, glass, and lacquer master discs from 1926 to 1948. Many of these rare items have been stored at Iron Mountain, a former limestone mine in Pennsylvania which holds various government and corporate records. This tremendous archive contains songs from just about every genre, including jazz, blues, light classical, and some spoken-word numbers. As part of the agreement negotiated between the Library of Congress and Vivendi (the parent company of Universal), the Library has been granted ownership of the physical discs, while Vivendi will retain the formal copyright to the music recorded on the discs. Over the coming years, the Library of Congress will preserve and digitize many of these recordings, and curious parties will be able to eventually listen to them online. Gene DeAnna, head of the recorded sound section of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division of the Library, remarked, "This is going to be the gift that keeps giving, that keeps our engineers and staff here busy for years. Our challenge right now is to decide where to start, because the sheer numbers are just staggering." The first link will take visitors to a New York Times article from Monday about this recent gift to the Library of Congress. The second link leads to a similar piece from the Hollywood Reporter. Moving along, the third link will take interested parties to a thoughtful piece from this Saturday's New York Times about the race to create an effective digital library in the United States and other nations. The fourth link leads to the Library of Congress's Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Here visitors can view digitized music collections, look over special presentations, and learn about upcoming concerts at the Library. The fifth link will take users to the Music for the Nation collection. This collection is part of the Library's American Memory Project, and visitors can peruse over 62,000 pieces of historical sheet music from 1820 to 1885. Finally, the last link leads to the remarkable Omaha Indian Music collection from the American Memory Project. Here visitors can listen to songs and speeches from the 1983 Omaha harvest celebration and listen to historic wax cylinder recordings recorded between 1892 and 1897.