Microform digitization service: Microfilms & Microfiches
Microfilm is a type of microphotographic film, used in the archiving and data retention industry. This type of media stores documents that are reduced by 24 or 36 times (or even more) to generate micro-scale copies of the original documents. It is part of the microform family, alongside microfiche. The main advantage of microfilm is its lifespan, which is estimated at more than 500 years. It was in 1936 that the American Library began approving microfilm and it was there that the technology began to develop. A reel (height is 16 mm, 35 mm or 105 mm, the length of the microfilm is variable but it is generally 30.5 m or 66 m) can contain up to 2500 documents. This makes it easy to store tens of millions of archive pages in small spaces. But microfilm remains a challenge for daily use (research, consultation, duplication, sharing, etc.).
​
Microfiche uses the same technology as microfilm. It is generally available in sheets of 148 x 105 mm.
​
Digitization of Microfiches
Today, the missions consist in extracting the images from the microforms to dispose of them (sharing, processing, etc.) in digital format.
Our infrastructures ensure appropriate handling and preservation of all your media.
A microform is a high density analog storage medium. There are several types, microfilm (in rolls) and microfiche (flat sheets), microopaque and aperture cards.
We qualify as microforms, the supports, of the photographic film type, which comprise micro-images. A micro-image being a small image, which can only be read or exploited by magnification. The microfilms that we find in libraries measure 16 mm, 35 mm or 105 mm in width.
ADOC Solutions has suitable tools to digitize all your microfiches.
ZEUTSCHEL OM1500 scanners
Average scanning 200 pages / minute (varies according to format)
Resolution: from 100 dpi to 600 dpi
Scanning: Grayscale - Black & White
Automatic scanning of microfiche
Output files: pdf, jpeg, tiff, jpeg2000, pdf/A
OCR available
Daily scanning capacity: between 130,000 and 150,000 pages / day.
​
Digitization of Microfilms
ADOC Solutions offers you its microform digitization services: microfiches and microfilms.
Our teams have been digitizing collections of microforms for several years. The missions carried out are as follows:
-
Transportation of collections (inventory management, supply of containers, etc.),
-
Preparation of the supports (cutting and welding in certain cases, when the supports have been grouped together),
-
Digitization of microforms,
-
Image enhancement (cropping, rotation, etc.),
-
Calibration according to the reduction rate of the images (24x, 48x…)
-
Foliage of scanned images (group, number pages),
-
indexing,
-
Naming,
-
data mining,
-
OCR,
-
Transformation into image format (jpeg, jpeg 2000…),
-
Creation of data files METS, EADS, altoxml, xml…,
-
…
Microfiches can also be obtained by mounting 16 mm or 35 mm films in a jacket – transparent mylar which has, in its upper part, a translucent zone intended for the inscription of a title and, in its lower part, spaces intended for receive a microfilm strip.
​
For the conservation of microforms, we respect the recommendations:
-
Maximum temperature of 21° and a relative humidity of 20-30%.
For operations (scanning, cutting, welding, etc.) of microforms, the conditions are as follows:
-
Maximum temperature of 25° and a relative humidity of 20-50%.
-
Our facilities prevent daily humidity variations of more than 5%
​​
ZEUTSCHEL OM1800 scanners
Average scanning 440 images / minute (varies according to format)
Resolution: from 100 dpi to 600 dpi
Camera: 12 bit
Scanning: Grayscale - Black & White
16/35mm scanning
Output files: pdf, jpeg, tiff, jpeg2000, pdf/A
OCR available
​
Daily scanning capacity: between 600,000 and 700,000 images / day.
​