Electronic libraries: New York Philharmonic launches digital archive

The New York Philharmonic has started placing its vast archives on the Internet. It's a multi-year undertaking that will total 8 million pages.

The orchestra launched the digital archive on Thursday with 300,000 pages from the Leonard Bernstein years, from 1943 to 1970.

They include more than 1,000 conducting scores marked by Bernstein, Andre Kostelanetz, Dimitri Mitropoulos and Gustav Mahler. There's also more than 3,200 printed programs, 4,500 lantern slides and selected business records, including Bernstein's programming proposals and correspondence.

By 2012, 1.3 million pages from the Bernstein years will be online. They will be followed by documents from 1842, the year the Philharmonic was founded, to 1908, and from 1909 to 1943.

The digital archive is paid for by a $2.4 million grant from the Leon Levy Foundation.