Should I write a canonical question about disposing of historical material?

Question

I was just going to write a question, but then I thought that an generalised canonical Q&A might be better; then I had a second thought that there might already be such a resource but I hadn't found it.

So I decided to ask here first.

I have wondered what should happen to the historical material I have collected over the years, because if I do not ensure it is preserved I am certain it will be destroyed by those who come after me. A problem for many of us with many years of experience that span back to the origins of computing technology.

I have a lot of manuals about hardware and software as well as hardware artefacts. The manuals can go back to the early 1950s, cover 60s, 70s, 80s and so on.

Perhaps they are not unique, but who knows.

Any thoughts if such a general question would be useful on the site?

Answer 1

I'm sure some guide on how to ensure old stuff, hardware or printware, can be preserved would be of use.

Some kit that I worked on in my early days was donated to the National Museum of Computing. They accept donations of stuff and also have links to other museums that also accept and preserve manuals - e.g. here.

Making such places, and similar ones in other countries, available through this site would be a valuable resource.

Answer 2

To answer the question posed - yes, I think a canonical Q&A would be valuable for the site.

Given that our membership spans a large range of interpretation about what is "retro", probably correlated with the age of the member, it would be as well to be explicit about what sort of material the advice applies to.