Dear Deborah,

> Yes I heard of the punch cards but thought we couldnt read them because 
> the hardware can not be found?  Is this true.  Deborah <

Some organizations (including NARA) still have functional card readers. And 
you can read the card "manually" if necessary, the encodings can be found in 
reference books :)

> But, if the magnetic tape is not fully readable and in some sort of format 
> that can be read, do you believe the information can be retrieved and 
> undestood, adding the fact that the program is probably not functional as 
> well. <

I'd say it would be costly. With proper funding and commitment we humans can 
do amazing things including reading obsolete magnetic tapes. See an example 
here:
http://www.freegovinfo.info/node/118


Regards,
Natasha 

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