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At 08:57 PM 6/27/2003 -0400, Mike Csontos [log in to unmask] wrote: >I know of no way to put this material into any sort of database where it >will be maintained by IT professionals. Is anyone establishing an "audio >cemetery" where digital archives will receive "perpetual care"? The only thing I don't like about your cemetery analogy is that it implies death. Once the asset is in, what I prefer to call "permanent digital archive" under "perpetual care" of an IT department it will be ready for easy access, rights willing. What we need is a societal will to preserve this and fund it. It is NOT a technological problem any more. It is a societal/political/organizational problem (choose the word that best fits your image). I like audio CD-Rs DESPITE Jerry's warnings as they are likely to last longer without intervention than your flawed 25-year-old tapes, players will be plentiful for the foreseeable future, and they can be "ripped" to data files at faster than real time. I don't think audio CD-Rs are the be-all and end-all, but they are the most likely to be easily playable in 50 or 100 years. The fact that our early media is so robust is a tribute to the engineers who developed it and also an artifact of the early tools and requirements. Obviously, people were focusing on other parameters when your tapes-in-need-of-baking were developed and manufactured. If the anecdotal story I've heard is true, 3M used their tried-and-true red barn paint as the basis for the early magnetic tapes. Cheers, Richard