Unfortunately, libraries and institutions don't seem to be interested in acquisition just now. They have their hands full with digitizing their existing collections. It might be useful to speak with the custodians of various collections to determine the best course of action. I bet they would be delighted if all that work was done for them! Perhaps a grant could be acquired to digitize it, esp, as has been said, the rare and unique portions. Docents? Volunteers? Folklore majors?

The Maine Folklife Center seems to have fallen victim to this lack of staff and much of the collection is difficult to access. Programming is defunt. It is being warehoused in the Fogler Library at Orono and has not even been properly catalogued yet, though some samples are online. The Library of Congress did receive the work of Sandy Ives about 10 years ago, but that has not been digitized either.

Fred and I have just completed transcribing lyrics and tunes for all the Maine songs in the Flanders collection (close to 400 songs) from the digitized files that appear on Archive.org. We plan to donate this work back to the Middlebury Library after we have studied them for use in our book series "Bygone Ballads of Maine".

Good luck and keep us apprised
Julia Lane