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Hi George: I'd think heat and light are the worst enemies of archival CD's. So, anything that keeps out heat and light should be good. I'd avoid wood just because it's a moisture conductor, and I'd not store valuable content anywhere steel could develop rust (ie a basement or attic). But most important, beyond all other factors, is many copies in many places. The best way to accomplish this, of course, is make your content available online so many people can download it to many computers in many states/countries. Next after that is one set or more on-site and several sets at various off-site locations. In my opinion, a bunker-like climate-controlled storage room is pretty useless if the building collapses in an earthquake, burns down or has an airplane crash into it. Much better to spend the money spreading many copies in many places. One man's opinion, YMMV, etc. By the way, for all of you with large archives of things like interviews or field recordings or other non-commercial content you'd like to see more publicly-available, you might see if Google will catalog and host your digital files. This sort of thing is right up their alley -- Google Sounds or something like that. They have the money and resources to afford the storage and bandwidth to make it widely available. Once enough people know about and download something, its chances of living a long time (and mattering a long time) are greatly enhanced. -- Tom Fine ----- Original Message ----- From: "George G. Strawley" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 2:08 PM Subject: [ARSCLIST] Storage of audio CDs > Hello: > > I am new to this list and even newer to audio archiving, so please forgive me if my question is old hat for some. > > I am researching a plan for our newly created CDs containing once-analog oral history interviews. I could have sworn I came across some research, probably on the Web, suggesting that an anodized steel cabinet was preferred over enameled steel or wood for storing CDs. However, when I went back to check the information, I couldn't find it among my bookmarks. I checked NIST, Colorado Digitization Program, LC -- nothing on the subject. Has anybody ever come across such a recommendation? If so, where? And while we're at it, what do you use for storing CDs? > > Thanks, > > George Strawley > Intern > Institute of Jazz Studies > Dana Library > Rutgers University > Newark, N.J.