There is an analogue in the book world of what you're proposing: check out BookCrossing.com. In cities across the nation, there are small repositories where people donate books they no longer need, labelled as a BookCrossing book. Other people are encouraged to take the books, read them, then release them back into the wild (along with their own extras).

But I wish that each city had places that were oriented toward preservation of historical materials like these, accessible (at the most modest of costs) to the public. Sadly, public libraries, which onced served this sort of function, now only focus on popular pap. And the media are so fragile (and patrons so cavalier) that recordings seldom have a long shelf life. Copyright laws (the bane of the folk world) prevent libraries and museums from making public use copies from carefully preserved masters. It's sad that, with so much technology available to us, we're doing such a dreadful job of preserving our heritage and making it widely available.