Microfilm
A film bearing a miniature photographic copy of printed or other graphic matter, usually of a document, newspaper or book pages, etc., made for a library, archive, or the like.
Advantages:
- It is compact, with far smaller storage costs than paper documents. Normally 98 document size pages fit on one fiche, reducing to about 0.25% original material. When compared to filing paper, microforms can reduce space storage requirements by up to 95%.[12]
- It is cheaper to distribute than paper copy. Most microfiche services get a bulk discount on reproduction rights, and have lower reproduction and carriage costs than a comparable amount of printed paper.
- It is a stable archival form when properly processed. Preservation standard microfilms use wet-processed silver halide dyes in hard gelatin emulsion on a polyester base.
Disadvantages:
- The principal disadvantage of microilms is that the image is too small to read with the naked eye. Libraries must use special readers that project full-size images on a ground-glass screen.
- Reader machines used to view microfilm are often difficult to use, requiring the user to carefully wind and rewind until they have arrived at the point where the data they are looking for is stored. Also, photographic illustrations reproduce poorly in microform format, with the image usually not being as sharp as the original. The last problem with the machines is that printers are not always available, limiting the user's ability to make copies for their own purposes.[14]
- Color microfilm is extremely expensive, thus discouraging most libraries wishing to use microfilm from having color material available. This results in the loss of some information, as color materials will be preserved using regular microfilm in order to save money.[14]
Implications for Collection Development:
Film Based Imaging or microfilm is the safest, longest lasting and most cost-effective way to preserve and protect any kind of information. That's why it is still the medium of choice when used for off-site storage, document reconstruction and long term image preservation.
Copyright Considerations:
A microfilm image has been for decades, and still is, a certified legal copy of a document, once the original is gone (the standard practice in micrographics is to destroy the documents once they have been microfilmed - FicheNet has the paper hydropulped and recycled)
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