A detailed response to Jim's on Walter Pardon
As I've moaned interminably, we'a attempted to give our archive to people wh can house and use it, without success
I'm a litle reluctant to cherry-pick, but would like the whole archive to find a home where it will not just be stored (we have a loft if it ever comes to that) but will be used as a permanent resource for building repertoires and for research
Storing magnetic tape is a costly business - temperature controlled conditions - reasonably frequent rewinding to prevent print through - check of physical tape deterioration etc. In my opinion it is not the articles themselves that are so important as what they contain. Once several copies have been made in different digital formats and stored on a variety of machine and 'Cloud' destinations (though ultimately they are all a variety of hard drive) then the tapes themselves become less important. They still need to be catalogued however so that librarians/archivists/researchers can access them easily. Then they either have to be fully transcribed (very time consuming and expensive unless you can get good volunteers) or a skilled person needs to provide a synopsis so that all possible research or interest aspects are listed against tape timings. Reg Hall did this for quite a number of tapes from my BBC Sussex interview collection so that when, for example, the Sussex Military History Society approached me for 'World War One' anecdotes, I know exactly which CDr and how far through my long Gordon Hall interview I had to get to get what they were after

An archive of this size needs actively promoting, explaining and, where the opportunity arises, adding to
So you can imagine our problem with the 5,400 plus and growing items on the Sussex Traditions database. Also you will need a good efficient search engine that can do simple and advanced searches - and that is not as easy as it sounds as I am finding.

John and Katie run a business and that's not what we have in mind
They do. Well it is John that runs the Veteran record label as a business and they would not be interested in storing tapes or making digital copies available. Katie (at least until recently) was the mainstay of the EATMT Trust and their website shows that they have an Archive section. This is not a commercial business.
As a matter of interest, John's extensive collection of field recording tapes are now stored and maintained by the British Museum National Sound Library.

I hit on the idea of getting a tradition-based club to take over a copy to use for their residents and audience, but that fell by the wayside - Lewes turned us down flat and won't get asked again
I am rather puzzled as to why you think that a folk club would be as suitable place for valuable tapes to be used by random club members, digital copies perhaps - but this far from the activities that the likes of Valmai & Bryan take on. They run guest nights, sessions, tune-learning nights but they do not operate a folk song archive.

EFDSS would be ideal if they were doing their job
Again I think that they would not see this as part of their role - and the British Museum National Sound Library is within walking distance of their headquaters. On the other hand, if you were to offer to add your material to their remarkable The Full English Digital Archive I'm sure that they would show interest (I'm not sure where they are on post-World Two collections. Certainly their first concern was with the Victorian/Edwardian collectors. Steve Gardham may be able to help on this.)

Clare County Library showed what could be done - they took our Clare Collection, selected the songs, two librarians worked on them for two years and produced a very useable and extensive website
Unfortunately, when the two librarians retired the site became static - we could no longer add to it
This is curious. If two librarians were producing what you call "a very useable and extensive website" as part of their workload, why were they not replaced after the retired?
Obviously, I cannot help your at all with the various Irish institutiona and as always, I steer away from your opinion and comments of the English scene and your ongoing comments on what is and what isn't folk song. Anyway I am responding to the matter surrounding Walter Bulwer because that is what I am interested in. I hope you find some of what I have written helpful.