Researcher's Lament: How do I make a hard-copy library out of microfiche?

Factual Questions
1

Hello, mein froinds. I’ve found myself into a real conundrum, and I need your help.

I’m having a number of volumes of textual records reproduced at the National Archives and Records Administration. These are handwritten documents from the mid-1800s which were eventually bound into books. The total number of pages numbers close to two thousand. They have not aged well, and I am informed by the repro people that the documents must be printed onto microfiche. I have been offered no other options.

Well, nobody wants microfiche these days, least of all my client. So they want me to figure out a way to print these fiches out and reassemble them into their former organization. The organizational part I can handle, but I’ve got to get them printed first, and therein lies the problem.

I’ve called around to a number of graphics and printing companies, and all of them are telling me the same thing: microfiche is a pain in the ass. Two thousand pages shot onto microfiche is like having a giant hornet’s nest stapled to one’s ass, and if each hornet were worth ten bucks apiece, that’s about what the total cost of reproduction would be, though I’ve been offered a volume discount.

So I’ve got a lot of questions here:

[ul]
[1] Where can I learn about printing and photoreproduction in a hurry? Books and websites would be helpful.

[2] I’ve worked with fiche readers/printers before. Since this copy job is going to be astronomically expensive, should I maybe consider buying one of these things and just have a roomful of interns slave away at it?

[3] Are all these folks telling me the truth? Is this process really as difficult as I’m being told?

[4] Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing, and does anyone know of any companies that specialize in this sort of procedure?
[/ul]

Here’s the other thing. I haven’t seen the final microfiche product yet. When I do, I have to have it on paper and ready to go post-haste. Apparently one reason why this sort of thing is often so expensive is because sometimes each page has to be scanned at high resolution and then tweaked to make the printed product legible.

I don’t know how much I’m allowed to spend on this, but I do know that the eighty-thousand dollar estimate one laughing fellow gave me is way outa the ballpark. So if anyone can get me pointed in the right direction I’d greatly appreciate it.

2

Rent or lease a microfiche reader/printer*. If you live near a major city, this shouldn’t be much trouble if the fellow on the other end knows what it is. Call a local business machines company - or a company that specializes in archiving documents. Then hire a temp to print out the pages. There’s no reason why this project should cost more than a few thousand dollars at most.

If you only needed a few pages, I would have suggested that you take the microfiche down to your local library for $0.25 per page printouts. :slight_smile:

  • If you must buy, used models can be had for 5-10k.
3

Check out these Low Low Prices for used microfiche reader printers.

From
http://www.censusmicrofilm.com/rdrprntr.htm

Price: $899.00 Shipping: $130.00
http://www.censusmicrofilm.com/pc70.htm

Price: $1499.99 Shipping: $300.00
http://www.censusmicrofilm.com/pcprntr.htm

Googling “microfiche reader printer sale”.

And, these folks had a sidebar ad on Google. Support your local merchants. :smiley:

http://www.getimaging.com/

It’s gonna play the “Get Smart” theme atcha for a minute, so watch out.

4

Hey, thanks evilhanz and DDG. That should give me a bit of a head start on how to put all this together. I’ll let you know how it works out.

5

You might be lucky if you can find a local library that has a microfilm or microfiche reader/printer. My school’s library (VA Tech) has a microfilm reader & printer but the microfiche readers do not print :frowning: which really really stinks, cause I end up having to waste a lot of time transcribing things.

6

Someone should tell the people who run the Va Tech library that a microfiche reader/printer is realtively cheap.

I work in a public library and I think we have about 10 machines that print microfiche.

7

I agree that the buy-used-hire-a-temp plan may be your best option. (Don’t skimp on the temp. Get a pro so that you don’t have to pay to do it all again when it’s delivered.)

However, I’m curious as to why NARA is insisting on fiche-to-print. (Have they already done the fiche and they don’t want you touching the originals?) There should be a number of options regarding ways to electronically scan the images that would allow you to reproduce them using a good quality printer (not to mention having an electronic backup).

8

I see things haven’t changed there at good old VPI since my day. Pythagoras, you may be comforted to know that Tech’s fiche machines were considered old crap way back in 1989. That’s the problem with having all those engineers running around–they can keep anything running. On the bright side, maybe they’re antiques by now.

And perhaps I’ll see you at the game this weekend. I scored a ticket!

I made a call today to a pal of mine at a certain prestigious library, hoping to maybe be able to drop in for a few hours a day for a couple of weeks. He might go for it.

9

Yeah, I’ve wondered about that, too, tomndebb. The (brief) explanation I got was that they’re using some sort of low-light, no-touch process, because the scanner is considered too harsh.

I find it hard to believe that a photo image uses less light than a scanner, but I suppose it’s possible.

10

Why …? I’m going to to guess that it’s because that’s all the limitations of their apparently ancient recording technology can offer. Fiche was old 20 years ago and that’s the best they can offer today at 10 bucks a page !! :eek: - Fiche sucks - Run far away from that nonsense.

Here are other vendors offering more modern alternatives

http://www.ohionet.org/OtherServices/DigitizingServices.asp

http://preserve.harvard.edu/hcl/overview.html

and I’m sure thare are hundreds of others

Given the small size of the project, however, it might make more sense cost and complexity wise to do it yourself.

If the pages are delicate and cannot stand much handling get a good, high end digital camera with a 5 or 6 megapixel resolution and make (or buy) a rig to hold the camera at a fixed distance and position with pages placed beneath rig to record pages. Total should be 900-1500 for the camera and for a few hundred for the rig.

Alternatively, if the books can take some handling there are affordable high quality scanners for a few hundred bucks you can use to dump the pages in at whatever desired resolution within reason you require.

Hire some responsible digital media geeks for a few weeks and take 2000 pictures/scans and assuming a meg or so per page (probably less) as .jpg files dump this 20 gig data set on a $ 100 40 gig drive or 3 recordable DVDs or 30 CDRs. Rename the picture files by page and title after you put them on the PC.
Advantages

1: It’s not expensive
2: It’s higher quality than fiche
3: You can print the pages out as needed
4: If the text is in good shape you can use a good OCR package to process the images and have the entire dataset converted to a .txt or word file for maximum flexibility
5: You get a very nice digital camera or scanner out of the deal to keep.

Here’s one example

Celtic Manuscripts Case Study - Digitisian Project

Here’s another

http://maya-archaeology.org/

11

Well the fiche machines work ok, ‘fiche’ itself is probably going away in general, so when I have to use fiche Im sort of glad to have anything period. I just wish I could print it or something. Maybe if I hit up my library contacts they can show me the super secret fiche printer locked up on the 6th floor with the vampires ;). The microfilm machines are sweet though, no complaints there. They print and everything! Too bad I dont really care about 20th century newspapers :(.

We better freaking beat Temple this weekend.