Its all about the context though :-). One of the things the Computer History Museum has done a good job of is capturing a lot of the historical underpinnings. But while its interesting, in a "wow, isn't that interesting" sort of way that rail road track gauge is the same as cart ruts which are the same as roman chariot widths (not exactly: http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.asp)

Much of this stuff was fairly constrained by the choices of the time, and as such the information generally ages poorly.

The usefulness of the info may age poorly.. but the historical context won't

Else we end up in a tech situation far in the future where the world looks in the mirror on acid and says "how the fuck did we get here?" - and the tapes provide no answers

Btw, just last weekend I was harvesting 100 year old railroad spikes from a western timber company rail in Sonora because of the context of historical significance - not because I plan to lay a new track...

... like on usenet that was archived by Deja, bought by Google, and so well organized and surfaced for eternal posterity.

What samstave said... but, I'll buy the beer.