Deckman,

What are you planning do do with your material?
How are you planning to make it available to "future historians"?
Do you plan to donate your material to an organization, perhaps academic?

These questions are not idle curiousity.

I won't try to predict what the wolrd will be like in 50 years, but I am acquainted with the status of various archives these days.

Many archives have become "roach motels." If you can get an organization to accept your material at all, it will probably never be seen again.

The chronic problem is financial and it has been a problem long predating the current economic troubles.

It's all about money.
It costs money to prepare material for archiving.
It costs money to store material.
It costs money to catalog it properly.
It costs money to make it accessible to people outside the institution.
Many if not all organizations interested in the sort of material I assume you to have are working with budgets and staff cut to the bone.

I am aware of this because you are doing what a lot of us boomers are doing.

We remember the "golden age" of the Library of Congress Field Recordings and we have learned the hard way that those days are gone, probably for good.

One strategy is to bypass the organizations and get the recordings directly into the hands of those who are interested.

See for example,
The Field Recorders' Collective

Russ (Permanent GUEST)