I can think of some applications for Write Only Media ...

With the newer NTFS format, Microsoft says that they can apply something like two dozen different attributes to a file, and not just the old Read-Only, Archive, Hidden, System ones. (In Vista, Command Prompt, "Attrib /?" returns an additional "I = not content indexed" Attribute, but I've never found names for any of the others.) It has been suggested that the attribute applied to Backups made with their built-in Backup utilities generally has the Write-Only attribute attached, since almost nobody's ever been able to restore anything from one of them.

If the problem is just recording the data and getting it back to a storage place like a Hard Drive, and/or getting it to the library, most people would consider thumb drives or memory cards sufficiently secure. I wouldn't, at present, consider them a good way to archive anything for long-term storage (measured in years) until they've been in use long enough to develop some experience with how well they'll hold the data. The predicted data stability is pretty good, but so were the claims made for recordable CDs and DVDs until people learned otherwise.

The sticks/thumb drives etc don't seem like something that would be too practical for a library to keep as a master, due to the ease of "dropping one in a crack" so that it disappears among other reasons, although the library could easily transfer what's given to them on one to another medium that they believe is of archival quality.

I would suppose that part of the question depends on whether the one providing the data is responsible for it being on a "permanent" medium, or needs only safe transport and delivery with the library taking care of the storage problem.

John