The tapes stored at Cal State Fullerton, have about 3,500 interviews with county leaders and other historic figures. The program began in 1968 and has successfully used student interviewers to preserve the stories.

But many of the archives were recorded on magnetic tapes and in such obsolete formats as eight-track tape and Betamax video.

Richard Hess, a consultant who was hired by the university to evaluate its collection, said he was shocked at the poor condition of the reel-to-reel tapes, including the Nixon collection, which in some cases are literally falling apart when the magnetic adhesive no longer binds the sound to the underlying tape. Other tapes have been damaged by heat and humidity.

"My concern is that history is being lost," said Hess, a sound restorationist with National TeleConsultants of Glendale, who loaned the program a professional reel-to-reel recorder to help with the preservation efforts.

The interviews are being transferred to CDs but the process is time-consuming and can only be done as funding becomes available, university officials said. The program could cost at least $500,000 and take three years to complete.

Scholars from around the world have come to Fullerton to use the collection's Nixon tapes, which chronicle his early life. His White House tapes are stored by the National Archives in Maryland.