The U.S. Library of Congress -    has a National Recording Preservation Board...

Right next to Thomas Edison...  "'Emile Berliner, the inventor of the microphone and founder of the first disc record company, lived and worked in Washington, D.C. A contemporary of Thomas Edison, Berliner believed that the wax cylinder developed by Edison and his partners was too soft and fragile for making a permanent recording. He developed the first process for mass-production of disc recordings. These are two of his early recordings. 1888-Selected for 2003 registry."

The Full National Recording Registry

2007 Registry is yet to be announced.  T

The latest editions  included... Nivana - Never Mind; Public Enemy and Sonic Youth, Graceland -by Paul Simon; a recording of Asian Elephant communication; Grand Master Flash; the  STar Wars theme, and Stevie Wonder's - Songs In the KEY of Life

-Passamaquoddy Indians. Field recording.(1890) Indigenous Cultures

Anthropoligist  J. Walter Fewkes also said...   somehing  Australia could start to consider, a hundred years behind him.

"The proper designation of the way our antiquities are treated is vandalism. Students who follow us, when these cliff-houses have all disappeared and their instructive objects scattered by greed of traders, will wonder at our indifference and designate our negligence by its proper name. It would be wise legislation to prevent this vandalism as much as possible and good science to put all excavation of ruins in trained hands. "