Art and Marylynn, I am so grateful for all this conversation about saving our research. I feel like I'd want to box my research all up and send it to a library or resource in Garrett County. All of my research is sorted and cross-referenced by surname and in file folders . . . probably have at least two record retention boxes worth of raw data and a 100 or so floppies of the correspondence I've received online . . . however, disks have a way of losing their magnetism and our com puters are so subject to viruses. CDs are probably the safest way to keep a copies. I have a CD Read-Write, and I think my next step would be to copy or scan everything to CDs. Scanning some of the booklets and documents I have might be a problem. They were originally typed on a typewriter and copied many times, are yellowed with age, and therefore don't copy or scan well, but it would be better than nothing. It would be nice to have a document feeder attached to my scanner and they are available for a hefty price ($200 or so), but when you look at the value of time and the research, it seems insignificant. Hmmmm. Maybe Kinko's offers this service. I'll have to check. I know that things can be saved to microfisch this way, why not to CD's. There are also audio/visual companies that can duplicate tapes and CD's rapidly . . . another resource. I'm retiring my home based business this year, so that will be a priority in the near future. Once the information is on CD, they can be duplicated and sent to a couple of different places and maybe they would be less likely to be tossed out. Lois In a message dated 11/11/2003 1:00:26 PM Pacific Standard Time, gradya3@yahoo.com writes: > Art Grady's further bit of input. > > Libraries pretty much always accept gifts on an "unconditional" basis, > meaning the nice smiling person who says, "sure, we'll take it", doesn't > necessarily mean, "sure, we'll keep it." If you are thinking of giving genealogy > files to your library, talk to them to see if they have more (demonstrating > institutional interest and committment), if they will commit to keeping your > treasures, and what their practices will be for making them available to > researchers. You may want to work up the library food chain to a larger library, a > special genealogy archive, or some such organization that makes you feel sure > your materials won't end up pooffffff, gone with the wind, in a few months, > years, or decades. Maybe drop a gazillion on kinkos and give a copy. > > Art >