probably most of the last 30 years would already be in electronic format seeing most of it would have been produced on computer. you'd have to scan the rest. it would be really interesting to see the old issues. the cost would be a sticking point for most people. maybe if an astronomy club bought it for their "library" it might work out cheaper, or if they were bought in bulk.
I purchased the S&T DVD's. They came in a convenient slip box of 8 DVD's. Much less space than a library shelf.
I have, as yet, only opened the 1960s DVD, the quality of reproduction (scanning for that era) appears very good, very much better than the National Geographic CD's I purchased years ago,
There is a facility to search the S&T DVDs by word or phase. It can be done by issue or decade. Also the entire collection can be searched via a separate index DVD.
  