Paper to Microfilm Conversion
Paper documents take up extraordinary space and require intensive environmental care for preservation. For this reason, many archives, museums, government agencies and businesses choose to have their records photographed onto microfilm to conserve space.
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Basics
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Microfilm consists of documents photographed and spliced onto rolls of 16 millimeter (mm) or 35 mm polyester (preferably), black-and-white film. A reader is necessary to view the rolls of film. The Northeast Document Conservation Center states that when properly stored, microfilm can last for 500 years or longer making it a stable media.
Conversion
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Producing microfilm is labor-intensive and requires sophisticated cameras, a studio setup for consistently photographing documents and the ability to splice film. Because of the setup costs, many choose to send their documents to a microfilm company that will photograph and arrange the film. It is recommended that two sets of film be produced for each grouping of documents, a working copy and an archival copy.
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Digital Conversion
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Searching for documents on microfilm can be onerous, and it is becoming common to convert microfilm to digital format. This also enables documents to be browsed on personal computers and eliminates the need for microfilm readers. However, the life expectancy of digital format is much less than microfilm, given the rapidly changing digital world.
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References
- Photo Credit folders with documents image by Alexander Ivanov from Fotolia.com
