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Magnetic Tape Storage (1Sep93)
(from KPNO, NOAO Newsletter No. 35, 1 September 1993)

Visitors to NOAO often leave magnetic tapes behind as backups following
observing runs on Kitt Peak (T tapes) or data reduction sessions at the
NOAO Tucson offices. The current policy is that these tapes will be
recycled after six months unless the observer notifies us otherwise.
Visitors have been encouraged to verify their personal tape copies as
soon as possible upon their return to their home institutions and make
any backup copies that they deem necessary. We would like to reaffirm
that the current policy is that tapes left behind at NOAO as backups
will be recycled after six months with no notification to the visitor.
As a courtesy we have been attempting to notify visitors when their
backup tapes are ready to expire, but visitors should not rely on this
service.  We still have many old tapes hanging in our tape library that
are signed out to non-NOAO staff. On 1 July 1994 we plan to recycle or
discard tapes that have a date on them prior to 1990. No warnings of
any kind will be issued. If visitors or prior NOAO staff members have
tapes that may be dated earlier than 1990 and are concerned about
keeping the data, please contact us as soon as possible. We have tried
in the past to contact as many people about the old tapes as possible,
but it has become increasingly time consuming to do this. And we cannot
hold onto these tapes forever. So we have arbitrarily set these dates
to help clean up our computer areas. If you have any concerns about
these policies, please contact jbarnes@noao.edu.

Jeannette Barnes, Bruce Bohannan, Steve Grandi

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