[TUHS] Community Fund Re: AT&T UNIX VHS Backup

[segaloco via TUHS]

Hi everyone, this is something I don't usually broach but I'm realizing there may be an opportunity here.  This document stuff ain't cheap, and I've been bankrolling all my own preservation efforts for some time.

I wanted to test the waters to see how folks would feel about crowdsourcing some funding for a preservation effort.  I'm fully prepared to fund this myself but wanted to share:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/257390793755

After the link is what may be the complete set of tapes and support materials from the AT&T Videotape Library.  I posted a thread about this program previously and it seemed to be relatively unknown or at least not very discussed.  Now I'm staring down the potential of landing and preserving the whole thing.

Anywho my solicitation for donations to the process is for a few reasons:

- The auction starts at $350, is probably going to go up significantly.

- I do not currently own VHS archiving hardware, I've been waiting for an opportunity like this to make the investment, so would have more costs than just the auction itself.

- Just a week ago I closed on a magtape transport with read/write heads so I can fix it up (hopefully) and start considering some magtape jobs too.  Wasn't cheap, so still figuring out amortizing that one somehow.

Thanks for any consideration.  I don't plan on opening up the factory and showing how the sausages are made often, but this is one I want to make sure I don't miss out on over funding.  I have no idea when all these VHS tapes will surface again.

- Matt G.