Hi Noah,
Depending what is on the tapes, you might look in to CLIR's digitizing hidden collections grant program: https://www.clir.org/hiddencollections/. There are often local organizations that provide similar grants as well — we have one in long island that provides small grants for this type of project.
Thanks,
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:767e87a8-d6fb-4f4c-b722-59b850359d91]<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 11:27 AM
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Seeking advice on preserving and processing IBM MT/ST magnetic tapes (first first word processor)
EXTERNAL MESSAGE
Hi Lena,
Thank you very much for your response. Yes, I think outsourcing will be the
best option especially as it can be very expensive for my institution to
purchase old equipment just for one collection alone. Asides, our chances
of getting a donation of this media type is slim. So yea, outsourcing will
be what I will eventually sign up for.
Thank you again Lena. I will look into NEDCC as you suggested.
On Mon, Mar 3, 2025 at 9:27 AM Lena G. Bohman <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 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://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fplaylist%3Flist%3DPLJ7OuwLufMv2qNckbP4lTgWMp3Cswjq1M&data=05%7C02%7Clena.g.bohman%40HOFSTRA.EDU%7C121b01dd13ca4b53ca0308dd5a7074f7%7Ce32fc43d7c6246d9b49fcd53ba8d9424%7C0%7C0%7C638766161228828413%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=GXwY0ciqyT4uDnFJUny4Dkhlm4QuMLBzaghuJLYbuU4%3D&reserved=0><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%7C121b01dd13ca4b53ca0308dd5a7074f7%7Ce32fc43d7c6246d9b49fcd53ba8d9424%7C0%7C0%7C638766161228847697%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=oav18fdWL9d7ONJGzAqKXSVND%2FatkzyXwvpgB5jGIP0%3D&reserved=0<https://archive.org/details/IBM-MTST-OneTapeStation-OperatingInstructions/page/n43/mode/2up>
> <
> 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%7C121b01dd13ca4b53ca0308dd5a7074f7%7Ce32fc43d7c6246d9b49fcd53ba8d9424%7C0%7C0%7C638766161228859052%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=m%2BGkFW7%2BHOOTEy5dBA5rGYypSP9NedqmBm%2FzKTq%2BQEw%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%7C121b01dd13ca4b53ca0308dd5a7074f7%7Ce32fc43d7c6246d9b49fcd53ba8d9424%7C0%7C0%7C638766161228870052%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=56O6dh2A%2BT9Cx2BXFpACwaGpj5FVxCQXZl09rm2u2qs%3D&reserved=0<https://www.ricomputermuseum.org/collections-gallery/small-systems-at-ricm/ibm-mtst-system>
> <
> 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%7C121b01dd13ca4b53ca0308dd5a7074f7%7Ce32fc43d7c6246d9b49fcd53ba8d9424%7C0%7C0%7C638766161228880931%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ko4jHmbtX9OgIIiTRsYEcAiXtZRwjx3NVFzetksmUiA%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%7C121b01dd13ca4b53ca0308dd5a7074f7%7Ce32fc43d7c6246d9b49fcd53ba8d9424%7C0%7C0%7C638766161228897133%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=nD4ZuP3ASNyOOz4uEByK5tXl2NKMmCmT8SvlKP4M7%2Bw%3D&reserved=0<https://blog.bruchez.name/posts/ibm-mt-sc-1/>
> <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%7C121b01dd13ca4b53ca0308dd5a7074f7%7Ce32fc43d7c6246d9b49fcd53ba8d9424%7C0%7C0%7C638766161228908755%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=fUqIZwhlz9kihsNYZLL%2Fj0iHxcBj6m5708uVsKZgX7A%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
>
> *[log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>*
>
> He/His/Him
> **** CAUTION: This email originated from outside of Hofstra University. Do
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>
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