OK... continuation (conceptually) from my post just above...

Mostly in my mind for this thread, I have been thinking of "objects" (artefacts) for which I (and by extension, others in my position) have primary responsibility - we created them (like a photograph, or sound/video recording), if we do not preserve them they are gone on our demise, and certainly without additional effort will be inaccessible and unknown to others up to then as well.

But what about items where we are not the originator/responsible party, but have a copy anyway? I am thinking here mostly of off air recordings from radio and TV (and perhaps some unofficial recordings in circulation, recorded by others). So while we do not (for example) own any original "recording rights/obligations" (these presumably reside with the original broadcaster), we all know that in some if not many cases, the original broadcast copy has not always been kept; by default we might end up having saved the only one, or at least a better version than anyone else. Such "fan off-air recordings" have then been used in a number of compilations to fill gaps - I am thinking here of (let us say) Sandy Denny, Fotheringay, Dick Gaughan, more...

Here is an example close to home from the last couple of days... in the mid 70s/early 80s I was a fan of a Cambridge, UK-based band "Telephone Bill and the Smooth Operators" who played a sort of amalgam of Dan Hicks, Flatt & Scruggs, plus original compositions, very well - especially if you like that sort of thing(!). I bought all their albums and recorded a couple of live broadcasts off BBC radio as well. Just in the last couple of days I found that they had only recently discovered themselves that another fan (not me) had been saving some of their shows (presumably wiped by the BBC) and they had been able to "reissue" some of them as a new live compilation (see Telephone Bill & The Smooth Operators - Live & Long Overdue (Choice Cuts)), which got me wondering whether or not they had copies of the 2 shows that I had recorded. So I contacted the band via the compiler of that set, a few emails were exchanged, and it turns out that they had the first one, but in slightly poorer quality, and the second one not at all... so I am delighted to have been able to provide that back to them, to do with what they will (and at the same time, neatly handing off any responsibility for archiving and further dissemination - unless of course it never sees the light of day again, in which case I may have to look into alternatives...)

Anyway I just thought this adds a new and slightly different slant to the question of "what to preserve" - if you have something you like, even if not original, it may be worth checking whether you do have either the best, or indeed possibly the only copy...