I have a few one-off remaining records and I'm very conscious of the responsibility that goes with that. I've never played them and the only time they will be played is when there is a very high grade digitization done at the same time. I've been looking at ways to digitize them without having to actually mechanically play them (using lasers) but those systems are expensive! (http://www.elpj.com/product/price.php)
Well, sure, buying one is expensive, but you're just looking to use one. You only need one to share amongst whomever else you can find who has this need, and the Internet is really good at bringing those sorts of people together. You could Kickstart your way up to owning one of these, just as one idea. (Or work with somebody else to take it on, etc. etc., whatever.)
Kickstarter is an interesting option, never thought of that.
You could jumpstart a service that digitizes rare recordings as a service and make them available. Likely there'd be all sorts of copyright issues with a service like that but the basic principle is useful.
