The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.
If your local genealogy society or library is looking for a new project, I have a suggestion: convert some of your microfilm and microfiche holdings to digital images so that they can be easily shared and preserved.
If you have only one copy of the microfilm or microfiche, you probably already know how fragile it is. Microfilm and microfiche are easily scratched. Have you ever used a roll of microfilm that has already been used many times? If so, you already know what I mean. Constant usage of microfilm induces scratches. Most experienced genealogists have occasionally encountered microfilms so badly scratched that they are almost unusable.
The more you use a microfilm, the greater the damage. For examples, take a look at any the more popular microfilms at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, such as the U.S. Census records on microfilms. New working copies are made frequently because of the constant wear and tear of these microfilms.
The only method of reliably preserving microfilm or microfiche is to have a master copy that is kept isolated from public usage. The master copy is only used occasionally and only to make new "working copies" that are then made accessible to the public. Each master copy is stored in a controlled environment, and handling is kept to a minimum. This method of preserving master copies and only allowing public access to duplicate working copies will provide microfilm access for many, many years.
In contrast, digital copies do not suffer from "handling damage." Unlike microfilm, it makes no difference if the digital images are viewed once or one million times. Each user can see the exact same image as the first user; there will never be introduction of scratches or other "handling damage."
Making copies of digital images is super easy and almost free. Unlike microfilms, a copy of a digital image can be made in seconds and stored on new media at costs so low that you can almost ignore the expenses.
Of course, digital images are also easy to duplicate onto new media every few years as technology changes. The storage medium of choice used to be floppy disks, which have now almost disappeared. Today's tools are CD-ROM disks, DVD-ROM disks, and jump drives, all of which will disappear some day. Tomorrow's technologies will probably include Blu-Ray disks and other storage media that hasn't even been invented yet; and yet, those storage methods will disappear someday as well. Using digital images solves the problem: simply copy the images to the new media of choice every few years, then throw away the original floppy disks, CD-ROM disks, etc. All this is easy to accomplish with digital images.
Copying from old digital storage media to the latest technology is simple, as long as you don't wait too many years. Any active library or archive will periodically transfer digital images to the latest technologies so that the storage media is never obsolete. By copying images to the latest media every five to ten years, librarians and archivists can ensure that their digital images will last for centuries.
Another problem is the disappearance of microfilm equipment from the marketplace. Microfilm readers are still widely available. However, microfilm cameras, duplication equipment, and even the blank reels of microfilm are rapidly disappearing. Microfilm experts tell us that they probably will not be able to make new or reproduced microfilms ten years from now. Microfilm-to-digital scanners will solve many of these problems.
You can find a number of companies that provide microfilm/microfiche-to-digital conversion tools, but some of these tools are rather expensive. Some of them cost $10,000 and more – sometimes much more. One simple device has a modest price and seems to work well. With a price tag of about $1,500 and a bit of manual labor, your library or society can easily convert reels of microfilm to digital images.
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