Without due diligence, though, "bad books just sort of sift in, like dust, " said Mr. McMurtry, who purges his collection at least once a year.

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That will make it easier to convert a collection of vinyl records and cassette tapes currently gathering dust to digital format, suitable for burning to a CD.

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And the first man to leave footprints in the lunar dust, Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong -- aside from geologist Schmitt, the only other civilian in the collection of moonwalkers -- later sat on several corporate boards and the presidential commission that investigated the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster.

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