Training to Establish the North Carolina Central University/African American Jazz Caucus Jazz Research Institute Digital Lib.

FAIN: HD-50027-07

North Carolina Central University (Durham, NC 27707-3129)
Paula Denise Harrell (Project Director: November 2006 to April 2011)

The beginning stages of a jazz research digital library, located at North Carolina Central University, comprising photographs, oral histories, music, and text.

The development of a Jazz Research Digital Library is of great significance in the preservation and documentation of perhaps America's greatest cultural contribution to the world. Jazz is considered America's true "classical" music, a genre created and developed by African American musicians. The jazz art form is in crisis mode. Increasingly larger numbers of African American youth are not exposed to jazz and have no knowledge of its significance to their heritage. One of our objectives is to restore jazz to its rightful place of cultural importance in the African American community, particularly the youth. The youth of today are our performers, critics, authors, historians, and listening audiences of the future and action must be taken to preserve and provide access to jazz resources for our youth. We will seek to address this dilemma by creating a Jazz Research Institute which will comprise several components but will initially focus on the Jazz digital Library.