"only unopened/sealed tapes are useful". Not many of us could easily meet that requirement. I could supply 3M 250 and 808 in intact form but not unopened. I'll wait to hear what your search yields. DDR On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 3:17 PM, Eric Breitung <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I'm a scientist at the Library of Congress working on a pre-play (minimally > invasive) identification method for sticky/degraded magnetic tape. I have > a > few of the very common quarter-inch tapes Ampex 406, 456, Scotch 201, 207, > and 808, but to validate the method, I'm hoping to find in-kind offerings > of > any of the following (or others you know of that are known to degrade): > > (1/4") > Agfa PEM-468, 469, 526 > Ampex 373, 406, 407, 456, 457, 499, 2020 > Audiotape/Capitol Q15 > EMTEC SM911 > Melody 169 > Scotch/3M Classic, Master-XS, 175, 201, 250, 806-9, > 908, 966, 967, Pro-206, 207, 226, 227, 808, 986 > Sony - PR-150, FeCr, SLH, ULH-72-370-BL > TDK 150H > > > Because of the ease of confusion of boxes, hubs, reels, tapes after > opening, > only unopened/sealed tapes are useful. > If you're interested in helping but want the tapes returned to you, I can > do > that as well. Otherwise, we will keep them as part of our test collection. > > The method: Uses IR spectroscopy and multi-variate statistical analysis to > differentiate degraded and non-degraded magnetic tapes: see "Report on > Research and Testing of Audiovisual Media at the Library of Congress" from > 2012 ARSC and IRUG Conference 2012, Barcelona). Using the Library's > collection - testing 100 tapes from the 1970-1990's, we've been able to > accurately identify 98% of the time which polyester-urethane tapes are > degraded or not using IR spectroscopy. > > Please don't hesitate to contact me. The LC should be able to pay for > shipping... > > Thank you kindly - > Eric Breitung > Chemist > Library of Congress > Preservation Research and Testing Division > ebre at loc dot gov > -- Dennis D. Rooney 303 W. 66th Street, 9HE New York, NY 10023 212.874.9626