The natural sciences possess a rich heritage of data spanning the entire era of research, encompassing both modern electronic formats and analogue ones (paper, film, books, pro-formas, charts, maps, photographic plates) or primitive magnetic tapes. The information in older data is critical for quantifying changes and trends and differentiating between natural or anthropogenic-induced changes. Unfortunately, most historical data have not been converted into electronic datasets. Those data cannot be accessed by present-day research - to the serious detriment of models that predict future...