Microfilm “Mystery” Dispelled

WHAT do you think of when you hear the word “microfilm”? Mystery and intrigue? Superspies and secret agents? But microfilm is no more mysterious than your everyday snapshot taken on a 35mm roll of film. Yet, it can affect your life in various ways.

Perhaps the “micro” in the word “microfilm” is misleading. Actually, what is small is, not the film, but the image on the film. How so? Well, there are three basic differences between microfilm and your ordinary snapshot. First, your snapshot may contain people or scenery, whereas microfilm becomes a storehouse of printed information for its viewers. Second, the type of film used for your snapshot is different from the film used for microfilm. Why? Because microfilm must be capable of reproducing small details, like the letters on a printed page. Third, your snapshot often ends up being printed on photographic paper, but microfilm is generally printed on film.

How It Affects You

Have you used a library lately? Many libraries now keep historic or out-of-print documents, as well as unstocked books and magazines, on microfilm. For example, if a Bible student wanted to research very old religious material, it might be found on microfilm. There are also microfilm applications in education, manufacturing, insurance, and by federal, state, and local government.

Are you in business? The microfilming of personnel records can protect them from unauthorized examination or alteration, while making access and storage easier. If records of accounts paid and received are microfilmed, protection and accessibility are ensured and paperwork is minimized. Microfilming customer files promotes better customer service and relations.

Do you need or use engineering drawings? Microfilming these drawings can save you money. Microfilming can reduce wear and tear on valuable originals, cost of reproduction and distribution, and nonproductive time spent by highly paid personnel. It can permanently streamline your drafting room. Microfilming can also keep written procedures and maintenance records available; the same can be said for payroll and tax records put on microfilm.

So, what do you now think of when you hear the word “microfilm”? Has some of its mystery been dispelled for you? No doubt you can now see that microfilm is a versatile medium that may sooner or later affect your life.

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Microfiche

One of the most commonly used microforms today is microfiche. One microfiche, about the size of a playing card, can contain about a hundred pages of typed information. Standard microfiche, upon which microimages are arranged, usually in 7 rows and 14 columns for a maximum of 98 pages per fiche, are approximately four by six inches [105 x 148 mm] in size. The advantage of microfiche over roll film is in having a complete unit of easy-to-store, easy-to-identify, and easy-to-read information on a single sheet of film.

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The above sample, shown at actual size, contains all 773,746 words of one edition of the “King James Version”

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The Microfilm Revolution

Although most people think of it as a 20th-century breakthrough, microfilm dates back to the late 1800’s. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, Rene Prudent Dagron used an early form of microfilm to deliver messages by carrier pigeon from Paris to Bordeaux, France. This early microfilm, called pellicle, was made by photographing messages using an emulsion on glass; when the emulsion dried, it was stripped from the glass and rolled into small rolls, which were attached to the pigeons.

Although the first microfilm reader-printer became available in 1928, the introduction of the first push-button microfilm reader-printer in 1957 began a microfilm revolution. This device not only allowed viewing of what was on the film but permitted an enlarged paper print to be made of it. The year 1958 saw another major boon to the microfilm revolution, COM (Computer Output Microfilming). This is a method of converting data from a computer into images on microfilm without intermediate photographic steps.

In addition to COM, there are two other areas in which microfilm is used. The first one, and by far the oldest, is source document filming. This is the microfilming of source papers, such as maps, drawings, invoices, bank checks, birth certificates, and other valuable documents. The second area is micropublishing, which refers to new information first sold or distributed in microfilm form. An airline maintenance manual used by commercial airlines is one example.

With these innovations, microfilm is no longer just a space saver but a medium with these advantages: cost reduction, file completeness, faster and easier information handling, and reduction of theft, mutilation, and alteration.