Personally, I'd make copies on cd-rom or dvd using a non-lossy encoding
algorithm.  This way the deterioration is greatly lessened, copies can be made
without quality reduction, and (if you choose your medium and algorithm well)
the means to read them will be around for a long time.  This latter reason is
why I suggested cd-rom and dvd: commercial commitment to them is already very
high, and it's unlikely that they will vanish in a hurry (unlike e.g. the large
laser videodiscs, 8-inch floppy discs, and betamax videotapes).

If you're interested (or may become interested) in editing the recordings,
digital media are usually much easier to work with.

All common magnetic tapes (and discs) do eventually lose their data, and they
deform with heat stress, and large spools will be unevenly stretched by their
own weight.  The archival businesses that use(d) them have established routines
for refreshing them every once in a while - re-winding, re-recording, rotating
(to even out gravity stretching) et c.  The proximity of layers in a spool also
causes some cross-leakage that has to be periodically removed by re-recording.
Optical storage nearly eliminates these problems.  If you can find some
introductory computer science textbooks from the 70's or 80's, they often have a
chapter or two on the practicalities of magnetic data storage.

A suggestion: type a subject into your messages.  It's to your benefit: many
people (including me, if I'm rushed) immediately or automatically delete
messages without subjects, because the important messages will 'always' have
subject fields.

----------------------------------------------------ô¿ô-
Alistair Kwan                                        -
[log in to unmask] / [log in to unmask]
--------------------------------------------------------

Alisa Marie Johnson wrote:
>
> I am an undergrad student in Minnesota studying archives and I had a
> question that I thought someone might be able to help me with.  I have
> some VHS tapes that old home recordings were put on.  It has now been
> several years and I'm worried that they will deteriorate too much.  What
> would be the next step in preserving these?  Is there another format that
> I could put them on that has a better shelf life or should they just
> continue to be transferred to new VHS tapes?  Thank you.
>
> Alisa Johnson
> Concordia College

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