My most recent effort has been to scan and OCR these papers. That only gathers a certain couple of vectors of information, that is, the arrangement and the content of the text. It leaves out a lot about the consistency of the paper, the feel of the dots, the heft of the pile. Not stuff that easily transfers now and not stuff that might hold interest to current generations, but later ones will likely have other ways of keeping this.

It may sound science fiction-y but there could very well be a way to produce holograms or cloned versions of historical stuff in the future. If this is the case, then you would definitely want the original items.

Either way, there is no benefit, after 20 years, of me intentionally trashing stuff just because my newest approach to transcribing it into another form is somewhat successful. Let life, disaster and entropy do that work.

I bag these printouts in archival plastic bags with acid-free backing and store them with indications of what they are. Always.

My question for you Jason is, once you’ve scanned in the papers, do you throw them away? I can’t. Even after the papers have been scanned or the old disks have been converted, the memories, stories, and history still remain in the originals. I wish I could let them go, as it sure would be nice to park a vehicle in my garage, but to date I cannot.