Our collection has now reached a certain size, and as there have been discussions at the Retro-Computing Society of Rhode Island on the path collections should take, it is perhaps worth noting the informal strictures under which we have been operating.

Retro-Computing has elected to withdraw from the micro-computer and workstation fields. Their brief, however is somewhat different to ours, and to date at least we have no plans to follow their path.

We have elected to attempt to cover the panoply of computer development, and as our statements of purpose have indicated, forge links demonstrating the computer's indebtedness to previous or allied technologies. In line with this, we would fit very well contextually with the South County Museum's Printing Collection, and the New England Museum of Wireless and Steam's foci.

Realistically, we cannot preserve everything that is out there. Much, indeed is absolute dreck, unworthy of preservation. One problem is the stock of generic pc's which seem to be a part of many donations. To a large extent this has been resolved by finding homes with needy neophyte computerists, seniors or low income, and for other machines, use as a parts source. One of these machines is be even being adapted for our office server.

We have elected to give our attention to major manufacturing marques, and to specialise in Wang equipment. Even though we are well stocked with Wang pieces, there are many items which we have not yet seen or acquired, especially in the 2200 and early WP line.

We have tentatively settled on two iterations for equipment, one being a spare in case something unfortunate happens to the other item. In some cases, more than one sample has been donated, but generally it has been accepted that two is enough, except in cases of large or rare equipment. Sometimes, it seems that a single example of a printer is sufficient for preservation. One exception may be where multiple systems are preserved, each with its own printer. We also see situations where an item may be rebadged and sold under a different name, as with Olivetti, Data Products, Diablo, etc.

We have also felt it important to obtain and preserve manuals and other documentation for our systems. We have learned that paper is frequently separated from hardware, and many donations have been received with no manuals. As a related matter, we have also tried to established a suitable research library for computer books, and have now accumulated something over 5,000 volumes. Cataloguing this material has been, and will continue to be one of our greatest tasks, as well one of our most difficult.

One of the continuing challenges will be to increase available space for storage and display of new items, some of which may be rather large. We have yet to finalise a display hall for our Wang equipment, and in the long term, we will want to add displays of British computing equipment. In future we may want to follow the established practise of the A1 Toronado project and replicate otherwise unobtainable equipment. Projects could be the erection of a Babbage engine or a reconstruction of the Antikythera device if suitable plans exist. Yet another possibility is the construction of a Beowulf or Amiga Beowulf computer. These projects could become major parts of an educational partnership, perhaps with the state's vocational technical schools.