Just a couple thoughts.
1) Perhaps a bit selfish of me, and not to take anything from any of the other locations, which are also very appropriate, but I'd really like to see the hall come to Worcester, Massachusetts. It would only be about 40 minutes away from me, and I would probably volunteer to work there. Anyone have info on how to help support the Worcester application? (assuming they've made an actual offer) If I had any clue about how to go about making an offer, I'd give a try at bringing it to pretty much anywhere in the Boston area. Combining with a bigger museum often won't work for a small museum long term, since they get pushed out when the bigger place needs space. (Our Boston area computer museum is now in California, pushed aside by the needs of the childrens museum....)
2) I'm really glad to hear about the goal of preservation of cycling research materials of all kinds. I've been trying to research some of my bikes that were used toward the end of the time period we deal with here, and a couple years after. And I can say that any info is very hard to come by. In most cases, I can't even find a photograph. The only place in the Boston area that carried a fairly mainstream publication like "bicycling" from the early 80's was the Cambridge public library. And all they had was negative image microfilm done month by month a couple years after when the actual magazines were being discarded. It took both librarians a good half hour to find an index to "Bicycling" which isn't covered in the readers guide to periodical literature. So hearing that there will eventually be a research library for cycling is a big plus.
I have a couple projects in mind, that I'll finally put in another message.
Steve Birmingham
Lowell, Massachusetts
USA