Tag: microfiche conversion

February 23, 2018

Microfilm Saves History

History is defined as “the study of past events, particularly in human affairs” or “a continuous, typically chronological, record of important or public events or of a particular trend or institution”. Even the definition of “oral history”, which is defined as “the collection and study of historical information using sound recordings of interviews with people having personal knowledge of past events” points to storing the information on media.

Without a way of writing, typing, or recording writing, video, audio, and art, the last thing we have is passing stories down from generation to generation, but if you’ve ever played the telephone game you know that messages get messed up. Of course, no one would want to pass down detailed financial information, detailed law, scientific data, etc. anyway, so the bottom line is that human history only exists due to saving and maintaining The Record.

The United States of America is notorious for keeping vital records and having a paper trail for everything when it comes to you and the government. If you come from the Philippines, for example, you know how hard it is to get your birth certificate. Heck, you may not even have a lease to furnish for your house.

Therefore, without The Record, history is erased- its people, events, and facts. Without the archive, there is no history and there is a sense of nihilism. In 1870 American newspaper mills switched to wood pulp, which decay rapidly. In the 1920s, the Kodak proposed that microfilm was the solution, which allowed an entire newspaper to be contained on a small roll of 35mm microfilm. Eventually libraries were transferred to microfiche and microfilm while the originals were destroyed.

Now thanks to microfilm scanning and microfiche conversion, the documents are digital and can be printed, e-mailed, saved in the cloud, local PCs, discs, and servers.

January 3, 2018

Generation Imaging’s Microfilm Scanning Workflow

Microfilm Scanning Steps

Generation Imaging has years of experience handling microfilm scanning projects. Here is a brief outline of our microfilm scanning workflow process.

-Gather Information: We will confirm the client’s requirements (DPI, file format, naming structure, delivery media, shipping, price, etc.) Suggestion: A greyscale PDF would probably eliminate the need to worry about poor quality documents. If the film is good, a bi-tonal tiff will do fine.
-Location: Generation Imaging will perform the microfilm conversion at our Florida office. There will be no subcontracting.
-Receive the microfilm. Either ship or drop off the microfilm to our office.
-Scan and name the microfilm by roll number.
-Quality Control, where we verify the project was scanned correctly.
-Creating an index is an optional step if the client needs images to be named by fields.
-Perform a Final QC Check so verify that the images were indexed correctly.
-Upload the completed images to an external hard drive, USB, burn to DVDs, or transfer via filesharing.
-Return the media via shipping company or pickup.

Utilizing high production/high quality scanners, Generation Imaging will convert the microfiilm to digital images in sequence order and name them by the roll labels. Each roll be checked to guarantee all images are captured using Nextscan’s Auditor software. Basically, a ribbon is created which contains a snapshot of the entire microfilm in a image. The experienced operator will then verify the frames detected and separated properly- and if they did not- the operator will manually select them. This guarantees no missing or duplicated images.

Regarding optional indexing: Generation Imaging can index specific fields from the images, if required. We can go over the specific details during the initial test.
The roll film will remain in our custody at all times. At no time will the microfilm be unattended during transport. We have a secured storage location area within their facility where the film will be stored when not being processed. Our office has an alarm system, password to enter the office, and video surveillance.

Contact Generation Imaging for a free quote, you will not regret it.

November 27, 2017

Your One-Stop Microfiche Scanning Services Solution

High Quality Microfiche Scanning Services

Generation Imaging is a microfiche scanning company located in South Florida. It has serviced hundreds of clients, including imaging resellers, financial institutions, schools, insurance companies, colleges, engineers, homeowners associations, government agencies, researchers, military veterans, libraries, and many others.

Does Your Microfiche Reader Need Repair?

As we march on into the 21st century, there are still remnants of an analog tech industry: you, your institution or your office may still be using microfiche on a daily basis, for an occasional request, or just as an archive. Part of the archaic method is to use a reader printer to read or print individual images.

That process can best be described as a band-aid and the general mentality is that it’s less expensive compared to digitizing the entire microfiche collection. However, a true cost benefit analysis must be considered before disregarding a microfiche conversion possibility.

Those microfiche readers were not built to last, and more and more users are reporting a lack of technical support, a need for spare parts, upgrades, or replacements. All of these searches may come up short in today’s economic times and advanced technological leaps.

What is Microfiche Scanning?

Microfiche scanning is the act of converting microfiche to digital images. Your entire fiche card or collection can be transferred to an output media such as CD, DVD, or external hard drive, or uploaded to a server, PCs, or internet. The benefits of converting an analogue media to digital media are numerous.

The resulting images can be in any image format; some common ones are TIFF, PDF, or JPEG. The frames of a microfiche may be outputted as individual files (called “single page”) or wrapped up into one file containing a fiche or name (called “multi-page”).

Microfiche Scanner Price vs Microfiche Scanning Price

Microfiche scanning is a specialized skill, and requires the correct equipment, experienced management, trained employees, a rigid set of procedures, the proper network configuration, parts and maintenance, insurance, office space, and many other factors. Microfiche scanning is a niche industry and although it is logical to presume that it would be cheaper to buy a microfiche scanner than to subcontract scanning services, that is actually not true in most cases.

A new high-quality, high-production microfiche scanner can run around $55,000 each depending on the make and model. Consider a mandatory maintenance plan and labor as well. A used microfiche scanner is slightly cheaper, of course, but understand that most are sold “as is” with no warranty or guarantees after a 30-day period (if that).

Generation Imaging offers very low microfiche scanning prices. Depending on how many microfiche cards in your collection it could a small flat rate fee for a small project or a tiny charge per image on large volume microfiche projects. Generation Imaging provides professional experience: microfiche scanning is both an art and science, and G.I. Partners has the high-end equipment, expert employees, and workflow procedure all ready right now.

The Benefits of Microfiche Scanning Conversion

Subcontracting the microfiche conversion to Generation Imaging is a relatively quick and painless process. Here are some benefits.

Microfiche to digital image saves space.
Microfiche scanning saves the time and labor of searching through file cabinets or using reader printers.
A microfiche conversion will save money for you in the long run.
Having a digital copy allows unlimited duplication, copying, emailing, uploading, and sharing.
With a microfiche’s images in your possession, you know have two copies: an analog and a digital; you can use the originals as an emergency backup if you wish.

The Different Types of Microfiche

The term microfiche can apply to various types of media. The basic characteristic that links microfiche is that they contain frames on a flat plastic sheet (as opposed to a spool of film, color slide, paper document, or cut-out cardboard aperture card). Here is a brief description of the different types of microfiche:

16mm jackets: These were originally contained on roll film strips and have been cut down and inserted into open jacket sleeves. May contain anywhere from 1 to 90 frames, although there are always exceptions to any rule regarding generalizing microfiche properties.

16mm duplicate jackets: These no longer contain the open sleeves; copies of jackets. May be black, blue, purple, or other colors depending on the duplication process.

35mm jackets: Usually very large frames (like blueprints or drawings), containing around 1-6 frames.

35mm duplicate jackets: A copy of a jacket with no open sleeves.

COM fiche: Computer generated microfiche, theoretically with perfectly aligned rows and columns. Usually packed with 208-270 images, unless some columns are not full.

Duplicated COM fiche: Same as COM fiche, but usually blue, purple, or another color. One issue that may arise is that the duplication method was wrong, so the COM fiche becomes skewed (crooked) or out of focus (rare).

Rewritable microfiche: Sometimes referred to as AB Dick or Microx, these are generally very light, and may look like duped jackets, but are evenly spaced, and contain “blank” frames.

Step and repeat microfiche: “Step-and-repeat” fiche were created with a special camera (also called 105mm film). They are more straight and even than jacket fiche, but have a varied image count, usually 60-300 images. They mostly contain manuals from Yahama, Suzuki, Ford, GM, Harley, Kawasaki, lab notebooks, books, etc.

Ultrafiche: These are like “super COM fiche” or “giant step-and-repeat” microfiche. There may be up to 500 very tiny frames on ultrafiche.

How To Start Your Microfiche Conversion

Please contact a representative from Generation Imaging today for a free, no-obligation microfiche scanning price quote.

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.

February 14, 2011

Microfiche Scanning- How To Scan Microfiche

Microfiche scanning is the process of converting microfiche to digital images. Scanning microfiche and microfilm scanning are two of Generation Imaging’s main specialties- from quality to price, and to fun. As you could imagine, G.I. gets a lot of questions from callers and e-mails from potential clients that are new to the world of digital conversions. Also, many industries and organizations use different terminologies, so let me clear up some things up:

The difference between microfilm and microfiche is that fiche contain small images on flat sheets. Microfilm is roll film, usually spooled on a 16mm or 35mm or inside a Kodak or 3M cartridge. It gets kind of confusing for some people trying to identify media when they see cut strips of roll film inside clear plastic jackets. But the strong definition is that microfiche is contained on transparent flat sheets (around 4 inches x 6 inches, or 105 x 148 mm).

I used the word transparent for a reason; an image on an opaque sheet (like cardboard or index card) will only work if the material is has a cut-out rectangle. In that case, the “microfiche” is really an aperture card (an old PC card). The aperture card usually has a 35mm drawing, blueprint, or map in the cut-out. There are other scenarios where 16mm strips were cut and pasted in the rectangular cut-off. Either way, Generation Imaging can convert aperture cards to digital image.

There are a few different types of microfiche:

Jacketed microfiche (aka jacket fiche, jackets, jacket microfiche, microfiche jackets, jacketed microfilm sheets) generally contain around 5 rows of cut 16mm microfilm strips. However, 35mm jacketed microfiche have around up to 3 rows. Jacket fiche are perhaps the most varied type of microfiche: some only have a few frames on them, while others have around 60-90 images. Some jackets may contain unusual records, such as EKG, old school dot matrix computer printouts, or earthquake seismographs.

Jacket fiche can be duplicated, which ads to some people’s confusion when identifying microfiche. A diazo microfiche would not have physical sleeves anymore; instead you may see horizontal lines for each row.

digitize microfiche

COM microfiche have been around for a long time. COM = Computer Output Media. These microfiche are computer generated and usually line up perfectly, in addition to having rows/columns or 16 x 13 or 18 x 15. Occasionally, not all the frames are filled with data, so there are blank spaces instead of a packed microfiche. COM fiche usually contain accounting records.

Step-and-repeat microfiche were created with a special camera (also called 105mm film). They are more straight and even than jacket fiche. These microfiche have a varied image count, I’ve seen some have 100-300 images. They mostly contain manuals: airplanes, motorcycles, automobiles, jetski’s, scientific notebooks, etc.

Other rare types of microfiche include ultrafiche (350-500+ tiny images) and rewritable microfiche, sometimes called Microx or AB Dick microfiche.

Microfiche Scanning

Where Generation Imaging comes in is that G.I. Partners, LLC can convert microfiche to digital images, such as TIFF, PDF, or JPEG at a very low price. Microfiche scanning with NextScan scanners is a specialty of G.I. G.I. also has years of experience with microfiche scanning using Sunrise, Mekel, and Wicks & Wilson microfiche scanners, and has handled all types of microfiche scanning projects.