Current and Potential Trends

With the advent of the Internet, electronic media, open access, and the digitization movement, some might wonder what place microforms have in the changing dynamic of media in the library world. Many institutions such as NARA continue to maintain their microform records because of the cost effective nature of storing microfiche and microfilm reels. While microform media are no longer the preferred means of preservation, microforms themselves have an exceptionally long life span.

With the evolution in microform readers, microfiche and microfilm can now be read on the same machine which is connected to a computer and a special software for reading microform images. Images can be captured and saved to cloud storage or removable storage devices such as flash drives.

ST View Scan set-up in The University of Southern Mississippi Cook Library Microform Collection

A close up of the ST View Scan Microform reader

While microform media produced prior to the 1980s has the likelihood of succumbing to vinegar syndrome, there are companies that continue to offer services to libraries and corporations for the digitization of deteriorating microforms. These same companies also tend to offer preservation microfilming for old and fragile newspapers and deteriorating books. One such company that offers both of these services is Newspaper Archive and its sister company Heritage Archives.

Similarly, the Library of Congress, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities, has developed the National Digital Newspaper Program, a program which seeks to create an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers (The Library of Congress 2016). This program includes the digitization of newspaper microfilm. The project is searchable through the program website Chronicling America.

The Ogden Standard November 20, 1916, an example from Chronicling America, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85058396/1916-11-20/ed-1/seq-1/

Even though digitization and the Internet have supplanted microform as a priority preservation tool, microform as a media is still very much in use. This is evidenced by the evolution of microform readers and by the continued use of microform collections by such significant institutions as The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Library of Congress (LoC) and many academic libraries. The use of microform media will likely continue to evolve, a statement which is evidenced by the National Archives UK creation of online digital microfilm services.

Bibliography

Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities. (November 3, 2016 [last updated]). The National Digital Newspaper Program. The Library of Congress. Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/ndnp/.