Tag: microfiche card

September 12, 2011

Another County Digitize Negatives to Preserve Records

Seems like everyday, another organization makes a move to digitize negatives to preserve historical records. This is a good move when you consider the benefits when you digitize negatives from microfiche cards. Microfiche with historical records are not easily accessible by the general public and they run the risk of deterioration and loss. If you digitize negatives from these microfiche, these issues go away.

The best time to digitize negatives from microfiche cards is before they begin to deteriorate. When this happens, the microfiche begins to lose quality and will eventually become useless. The precess to digitize negatives from these microfiche should start way before this decomposition has a chance to take place. The older the microfiche, the higher the risk of decomposition, although other conditions may also contribute. It is better to digitize negatives early to preserve quality and information.

Historical records hold an irreplaceable value. The ultimate step to digitize negatives from the microfiche will ensure that the information is preserved. Also digitize negatives allow easy access and distribution of the information. With this, when you digitize negatives you increase the value of the records and add layers of protection to the system.

August 24, 2011

US Libraries go Microfiche to Digital

A recent movement to convert microfiche to digital images will help local libraries across the nation in their efforts to get more information online. Records stored in a microfilm format is not a preferred method to use since finding information from microfilm is very time consuming. Historians and other genealogical researchers across the nation tell us that once they convert their microfiche to digital, the research time and accuracy have improved dramatically. Additionally, microfiche to digital is now fast and economical, making this process available to everyone.

You don’t have to know much about the process and procedure to convert your microfiche to digital format. Expert help is available at your fingertips. A microfiche to digital conversion is a highly skillful procedure that requires lots of experience to do it right. However, you can take advantage of years of experience from experts that have converted millions of records from microfiche to digital.

Another important aspect of a successful microfiche to digital conversion is the equipment used. There are a number of systems capable of converting your microfiche to digital but not all of these systems will yield the same results. To achieve a high degree of quality on a consistent basis, I recommend that only top quality microfiche to digital equipment be used. This equipment is very expensive so make sure you check with experts that will do this for you for a very cost effective price.

July 29, 2011

Convert Microfiche vs Convert Microfilm

A mistake that occurs from clients or organizations who are not familiar with micrographics is mixing up microfiche and microfilm. Every industry or niche has its own lexicon, and in the micrographics industry there are major differences between microfiche and microfilm. The purpose of this article is to describe the differences between microfilm and microfiche.

Microfilm- It’s rolled.

In the most simplest terms, microfilm is rolled and microfiche is flat. Microfilm is also called roll film, and microfilm reels, microfilm rolls. Sometimes the width of the film is used to describe the types, such as 16mm roll film or 35mm microfilm.

Microfilm is usually stored in plastic or metal spools. Some old microfilm is stored in metal pans. Yes, microfilm generally looks like small versions of movie reel film, except without the classic sprockets.

Microfilm cartridges look different that the standard reel spools- but only on the outside. The film is enclosed in a hard metal square casing to protect it. Kodak and 3M were innovators in producing microfilm cartridges.

There is no such thing as a 35mm roll film cartridge; there are only 16mm microfilm cartridges.

The actual microfilm frame placement and types vary, such as duplex film, positive, negative, duo, fixed, blipped, variable, etc, however that is a different topic and is unrelated to identifying microfilm vs microfiche.

Microfiche- It’s flat.

A jacketed microfiche

Microfiche are flat “cards”, usually 4.13 x 5.83 inches, containing a few frames on them. Whereas a microfilm may hold 500 (35mm) to 20,000 frames (duplex), a microfiche card may hold as many one one frame to a couple of hundred (COM fiche).

Jacketed microfiche are simply roll film cut up into strips and inserted into plastic sleeves. Some people get confused if they don’t see the jacket sleeves, but it could be that the microfiche was duplicated. If it was duplicated, the copy may still have faint lines highlighting the border of the jackets. Since jackets are created from microfilm strips, they can come in the 16mm microfiche or 35mm microfiche varieties. A 16mm jacket has more rows and columns, and thus can hold more frames that a 35mm jacket (1-6 frames).

COM microfiche is computer generated and contain very small frames (usually with a 42x or 48x reduction ratio).

Step-and-repeat microfiche were created with a step-and-repeat camera. Many times they contain manuals or books and can hold hundreds of frames.

December 6, 2010

Get your Microfiche Conversion Project Test for Free

At Generation Imaging, we are doing all we are able to to help our customers cope with their Microfiche conversion projects. As a part of our efforts, we have established a free no obligation testing process, where we take a sampling of the Microfiche conversion project and perform a Microfiche conversion simulation test, just like we might on the real job. This test has many benefits.

April 26, 2010

Genealogy Microfiche Scanning: Small Volume Microfiche Digitizing

Many microfilm scanning service bureaus overcharge ($250) for converting a few microfiche cards to digital image (PDF or TIFF). But let’s say you are a genealogy researcher, mechanic trying to read motorcycle parts microfiche, or a small engineering firm that has a handful of microfiche to be digitized? What to do when you get turned down or get up-charged for microfiche scanning. That’s where Generation Imaging comes into play.

You may have come to the right place to scan your microfiche. We specialize in servicing the microfiche industry by scanning your small volume microfiche projects as well as the high volume variety.

Many people have contacted us to scan one roll of microfilm or a couple of microfiche cards. Microfilm service providers often decline you if you only have 1 or 2 microfiche cards to scan. Scanning service bureaus do not like to stop production to scan a hand full of microfiche cards or a few aperture cards. Contact us for any size job of microfilm or microfiche and we shall accommodate your needs.

We value all of our clients equally and have always promise to provide the same level of service even if you have two microfiche cards to scan. We recognize that for each customer, their needs are just as essential as the next one, regardless of the size of the scanning job. Additionally, we make sure priorities and commitments to you are met so your project will be completed on time. Small scanning jobs are not as profitable as large scanning jobs but we make sure that this fact does not interfere with job priority.

Customer satisfaction is always our number one concern. This is the reason why you can always count with us to digitize one microfiche card at a fair flat rate price. In addition to scanning your small microfiche collection, we can also index the images for you. Big or small, any microfiche conversion job you may have can be done with us.

A small microfiche conversion job of just a few microfiche cards may need to be processed in a very short quantity of time. We have been able to deliver small microfiche conversion projects very promptly. We also take care of the security of the data we deliver, and we have never lost or damaged any microfiche. Therefore, you don’t have to worry.

Contact Generation Imaging next time you have a need to scan a microfiche card. Your project will be returned in a very short time- generally a business week. Customer satisfaction drives us to commitment and this means your microfiche conversion project is significant to us.