Hi,
I dealt with something similar in a previous job for a collection of dictabelts we had (an old obsolete medium that's basically a wax record but in belt format). I eventually concluded that if we weren't going to buy the equipment ourselves, the best I could do was to find someone to contract the digitization out to.

NEDCC is a good place to start looking. There are various people around the country who do this kind of work for obscure mediums, the only issue is tracking down someone who has the equipment.
Lena

Lena Bohman
Senior Data Management and Research Impact Librarian
Long Island Jewish - Forest Hills Liaison
Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
[cid:1f08925a-deac-4483-85a6-bdd4f5a7846d]<https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ7OuwLufMv2qNckbP4lTgWMp3Cswjq1M>
________________________________
From: Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Noah Adebanjo <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, March 3, 2025 10:21 AM
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [CODE4LIB] Seeking advice on preserving and processing IBM MT/ST magnetic tapes (first first word processor)

EXTERNAL MESSAGE

Dear Code4Lib Community,

I'm a graduate assistant working at the Center for Arkansas History and
Culture archives, currently processing the born-digital materials from the
Winthrop Rockefeller Institute collection. Among these materials, I've
discovered several IBM MT/ST (Magnetic Tape/Selectric Typewriter) tapes
that date from the late 1960s/early 1970s.

As these are relatively uncommon media formats now, I'm reaching out for
advice on a couple of things;

   1. Best practices for preserving these magnetic tapes
   2. Recommendations for recovering/accessing the data they contain
   3. Whether any institutions have experience with similar materials and
   would be willing to share their workflows
   4. References to vendors or specialists who might be able to assist with
   data recovery
   5. or any documentation about the IBM MT/ST file formats and technical
   specifications

Although, when I did my research I found the following resources ( here
<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2FIBM-MTST-OneTapeStation-OperatingInstructions%2Fpage%2Fn43%2Fmode%2F2up&data=05%7C02%7Clena.g.bohman%40HOFSTRA.EDU%7Cff95387bc40442a958ce08dd5a674ab3%7Ce32fc43d7c6246d9b49fcd53ba8d9424%7C0%7C0%7C638766121961322965%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=QV1WvlV5cJ442rZRA5oU1gNfRAJruyS%2BtB%2FwR1i3KSQ%3D&reserved=0<https://archive.org/details/IBM-MTST-OneTapeStation-OperatingInstructions/page/n43/mode/2up>>,
here
<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ricomputermuseum.org%2Fcollections-gallery%2Fsmall-systems-at-ricm%2Fibm-mtst-system&data=05%7C02%7Clena.g.bohman%40HOFSTRA.EDU%7Cff95387bc40442a958ce08dd5a674ab3%7Ce32fc43d7c6246d9b49fcd53ba8d9424%7C0%7C0%7C638766121961354723%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=33IdVXQJknjzFnqTnlVo1GamuUk6tGIA6dfpfaZrsbM%3D&reserved=0<https://www.ricomputermuseum.org/collections-gallery/small-systems-at-ricm/ibm-mtst-system>>and
here <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.bruchez.name%2Fposts%2Fibm-mt-sc-1%2F&data=05%7C02%7Clena.g.bohman%40HOFSTRA.EDU%7Cff95387bc40442a958ce08dd5a674ab3%7Ce32fc43d7c6246d9b49fcd53ba8d9424%7C0%7C0%7C638766121961372146%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=tFeVhP2A%2BZr7PJFwdxy%2B5UKkQzQ6lg%2BuK1BffTRajcY%3D&reserved=0<https://blog.bruchez.name/posts/ibm-mt-sc-1/>>)  written by some
computer gurus, but it doesn't necessarily answer how to get the content on
the tapes - it only talks about the complete machine so I still don't know
the best practice for the archival field. My goal is to properly document
and potentially recover the content if possible from these tapes as part of
my processing work.

Any insights, suggestions, or resources the community could share would be
greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much y'all.
--

Noah Adebanjo | Graduate Assistant
Center for Arkansas History and Culture
University of Arkansas at Little Rock

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