Legacy physical media

What Does an Electronic Records Archivist Do
By Lynda Schmitz Fuhrig, Electronic Records Archivist

http://blog.photography.si.edu/2010/08/10/electronic-records-archivist/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+si%2FvrZU+(The+Bigger+Picture)

Great post here referenced in the JISCmail list

Who knows what gems may live on such media, even if they were belong either a personal or corporate collection it would be really interesting to unwrap each items content.

I would be looking to migrate the content onto modern platforms. You can purchase USB 3.5" floppy disk drives these days, that would be a good first port of call for those items.

5.25" may be more tricky, but getting hold of some legacy kit and interface cards you should be able to put something together.

I think sometimes the hardest part beyond the physical recovery, is the actual interpretation of the data. Clearly many files may have been created in now-defunct applications. However with Virtual machines and emulation, the possibility exists to recreate the configurations of operating systems and applications that will allow a good chance of accessing content. However getting hold of the applications and operating systems to create an emulation platform may be difficult.