Seeking advice on preserving and processing IBM MT/ST magnetic tapes (first first word processor)

Dear Code4Lib Community,

I'm a graduate assistant working at the Center for Arkansas History and
Culture archives, currently processing the born-digital materials from the
Winthrop Rockefeller Institute collection. Among these materials, I've
discovered several IBM MT/ST (Magnetic Tape/Selectric Typewriter) tapes
that date from the late 1960s/early 1970s.

As these are relatively uncommon media formats now, I'm reaching out for
advice on a couple of things;

   1. Best practices for preserving these magnetic tapes
   2. Recommendations for recovering/accessing the data they contain
   3. Whether any institutions have experience with similar materials and
   would be willing to share their workflows
   4. References to vendors or specialists who might be able to assist with
   data recovery
   5. or any documentation about the IBM MT/ST file formats and technical
   specifications

Although, when I did my research I found the following resources ( here
<https://archive.org/details/IBM-MTST-OneTapeStation-OperatingInstructions/page/n43/mode/2up>,
here
<https://www.ricomputermuseum.org/collections-gallery/small-systems-at-ricm/ibm-mtst-system>and
here <https://blog.bruchez.name/posts/ibm-mt-sc-1/>)  written by some
computer gurus, but it doesn't necessarily answer how to get the content on
the tapes - it only talks about the complete machine so I still don't know
the best practice for the archival field. My goal is to properly document
and potentially recover the content if possible from these tapes as part of
my processing work.

Any insights, suggestions, or resources the community could share would be
greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much y'all.
-- 

Noah Adebanjo | Graduate Assistant
Center for Arkansas History and Culture
University of Arkansas at Little Rock

*onadebanjo_at_ualr.edu <onadebanjo_at_ualr.edu>*

He/His/Him