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The key to maintaining future use is continual checking. That's true with almost anything. When I worked with State Archives they had a policy of copying all files to new media every 5 years-not only because media deteriorate but also because devices that handle the media disappear. Usually the new media was the same as the old, i.e. 5" floppy to 5" floppy but when 5" floppies were banned by Microsoft they started copying them to 3.5" floppies (I think-maybe it was to CD's. I can't remember for sure as I wasn't working closely with them by then.) When the US banned leaded gas many older cars developed problems-but people found out about & fixed those problems right away except for those few who had simply garaged their cars & never used them for 20 years. Then they had trouble finding the solutions-because they didn't continually check for problems. That's the key to maintaining future usability for anything, IMO.
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