HELP! To Start and/or maintain an Archive?

Hi all- I'm fairly new here, although I've been in business for over 20 years selling 78's , restoring machines, and doing repairs. Even before I hung my shingle, I catalogued almost every 78 that came into my hands- by hand- making Label numericals on most companies: kinda like TY's page, only a bit more in depth. Even with all the numericals available now, I still ENTER enter almost everything, just in case someone missed one somewhere: indeed, my copies of Sutton, Brooks,Rust,etc. are filled with additions/corrections. But this is just a lead in...
I have my own record collection at home. Fine. But several years ago, a friend passed away & left me his collection of 15000 78's.He was focused on Victor S.S. Red Seal. at the funeral, I was asked by several "so,you gonna finish Scott's colletion?" Doe in the headlights moment. Then I said yes: I started pulling discs from stock & added quite a few to his. Made check lists of haves, including alt. takes.Then, as 78 sales are soft anyway, I began to set aside other pre-war labels, then post war., but not the "race" series records or super rare jazz: not only do these already exist in libraries & private collections, but here in Minnesota there is little chance of building a decent numerical run (And I can't afford to keep them anyway- I'd like to keep the doors open!). Now i've set aside several hundred thousand records in what one could call an Archive. It's eating up a lot of time (checking & double checking, building more shelves,etc.) and I'm doing it without any help or outside advise.

HERE'S THE BIG QUESTION that's been weighing on my mind: am I being stupid? Does all I have already exist in an archive or library? (actually, from what I've read, there are huge holes). Will/ does anyone care besides me? When I die, will they just be broken up again & sold off, like so many collections are?

I realize this is long & poorly written- my apologies-but ANY input at this stage would be greatly appreciated!

I also have a large collection, about 14,000 records. I have my own system of cataloging them by number, label, artist, condition and date. It is very labor intensive. I hope to pass my collection on to my son and he does seem interested and says he would continue it. I feel there will always be some one out there who will appreciate these old gems and will want to preserve them. I do not think you are wasting your time. You are preserving them for people to enjoy far into the future.

I'd agree.. I have around 20,00o 78s and cylinders, about 10,000 45/LP. All were catalogued by hand in looseleaf binders under the label - that being my interest - but of course impossible to search for a bit of music or a performer. So I have spent ten years looking for a decent database to fit my needs and so far three professional software firms have failed and given up! I reckon I'll be over 100 when and if it is done (i am 59 now), and as we are trying to open the archive to the public this year we have a conundrum... I am doing it purely for myself and if I can help archivists fill in gaps elsewhere, and because it is very time consuming but fascinating..

(We have no family to pass the collection to, the wife is not at all interested, so it will presumably all go to our non-profit to maintain and preserve..

Carry on for as long as you get a buzz out of it.

I had once counted on the public library to maintain copies of everything, until I found out they sold off anything that had not been checked out for one year. They also got rid of all of the highway engineering books because they were not PC.

The Library of Congress is supposed to keep copies of everything submitted for copyright, but how many recordings have deteriorated to the point where they don't play. Most of my early reel to reel recordings are now worthless because the oxide fell off the tape. And several Bugs Bunny cartoons no longer exist because all of the extant copies were on cellulose film that disintegrated.

My own collection is sorted by artist where there is an artist, by composer for classical music, and by year at the back (after z) of each type where there is not a single artist or composer. Classical and popular are separated. The records are further separated by diameter, because the shelves are different sizes for 7, 10, and 12 inch records. The tape and CD storage are set up the same way.