Digitising Microfiche and Microfilm

Last updated: 23 November 2004
Published in: Creating new digital media
Tags: digitisation

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Summary

A microfiche is a very compact analogue storage media. A single 6” x 4” polyester microfiche can store all the pages of an average book.

What is the difference between microfiche and microfilm?

A microfiche is a very compact analogue storage media. A single 6” x 4” polyester microfiche can store all the pages of an average book. The data is too small to be seen with the naked eye and so has to be viewed with a special reader.  A microfiche reader has a flat glass holder onto which is placed the fiche, this is positioned between a light source and a lens and the magnified image is projected onto a viewing screen.

Microfilm is a long spool of monochrome film, normally 35mm wide, while it too is very compact it doesn’t store quite as much detail as a microfiche. A microfilm is viewed on a similar machine to microfiche but the media is spooled past the lens.

Microform is the term that covers both microfiche and microfilm.

Can I read microfiche on my computer?

Yes you can but not in the way that you would traditionally view a microfiche. It first has to be captured digitally before it can be viewed on screen. There are a few machines that allow you to view microform on a normal analogue screen and then select an area to be digitised to a connected computer.

Can I use my flatbed scanner to scan microfiche?

You could try, but you probably would not be able to capture all of the detail in the original. Using a standard flat bed scanner would also prove to be a very labour intensive task.

What type of scanner will digitise my microform?

Unfortunately, specialist scanners are required to do this job effectively and these are often prohibitively expensive. Some devices will scan both types of microform but usually a dedicated scanner is required for each media type. Due to the high cost of the equipment this type of work would normally be contracted out to an external service bureau. See our list of Digitisation Services.

Is it possible to convert information from our microfiche into ASCII text?

The first stage is to digitise the microfiche using a specialist scanner. The digital files are then put through an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) program.  While these programs are continually improving they are most effective when working with solid text in simple fonts. The OCR created text can then be stored in its ‘raw’ state with a few inevitable mistakes (which we call ‘Dirty OCR’) or it can be edited and corrected to give a full accurate ASCII version of the text.  Some bureaus offer OCR as part of their microfiche scanning service.  Pictures within the document can be cropped out using an image-processing program such as Photoshop.

Will we break copyright law if we digitise our microform archive?

It is wise to check you have permission from the copyright holder before you start the digitisation project.

Is it possible to search through a digitised microform archive?

Yes, by searching through the indexing metadata that has been collected to accompany the digital version of the microform. Of course, this means that some time and effort has to go into collating this accompanying metadata. Alternatively, if an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) program has been used to convert the image into ASCII text then this data can also be used for searching.

Can I create microfiche from my digital data?

This process is called Computer Output Microfiche or (COM). Due to the high cost of the equipment this work is normally outsourced to a service bureau.

Microform when stored according to strict standards should last over 500 years, considerably more than the equivalent digital archive.

Last updated: 23 November 2004
Published in: Creating new digital media
Tags: digitisation

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