person working with documents for microfiche conversion

 

Adaptability. This skill is vital for both businesses and individuals. Access to your data from remote sources is crucial now more than ever. That includes microfiche conversion.

Enter River City Data to the rescue. Do you know where your data is?

If your data lives as a physical entity in a physical location, you could find yourself behind the times very soon.  

You could even find yourself out of business. Do not let this happen to you. Let River City Data help your company out today if you still need microfiche conversion.

River City Data will transfer any form of media you have into digital format. Whether physical paper records or analog media, such as microfiche, or obsolete digital, River City Data will transform your data into more mainstream formats using state of the art conversion technology services.

We use AMI View but will work with your existing ECM software to provide the highest quality digital data you need, right at your fingertips. River City Data services include converting both microfilm and microfiche to digital. We specialize in conversion projects. 

Both forms of media require bulky, specialized equipment typically available in a library, federal building, or other remote sources. Why is that an issue?

Since both entities have been closed since COVID began (some facilities may have opened after this article was written), the data is not being used to its fullest potential.

River City Data will take care of transferring your old data into digital images, giving it the capability to be accessed anytime, anywhere, crisis or not.

Microfiche reader in closeup

What are Microfilm and Microfiche?

You likely remember using them in school or work. They were tiny little squares that housed countless hours of research reading material. Sometimes information was stored on reels that you watched like a movie. 

Though split into two forms now, both microfilm and microfiche were once called under the unified name, microform. 

An English scientist invented microform in the late 1830s. Early microforms were used in the 1870s during the Franco-Prussian War to transport messages via carrier pigeons. However, they weren’t widely accepted as a useful form of data storage until the 1920s when George McCarthy made them more mainstream. 

In the late 1930s, microforms were then progressively split into two types of formats, microfilm and microfiche. Microfiches were usually single-square boxes, while microfilms were on reels. 

Since the Eastman-Kodak company was involved in their creation, people believed microfilm reels were more efficient. But that wasn’t the case. Microfiche was still widely preferred due to its compact size and ease of use.

Each microfiche can house up to 98 tiles, providing readers and researchers alike countless hours of knowledge at their fingertips. And up until recently, companies and individuals equally preferred these versions of data storage also. Why? 

The smaller size and analog nature of microfiche helped save companies unnecessary costs. Without the need to print every document or retain every receipt, companies could save storage space. The best part? They were helping the environment back before it was a known thing.

By using River City Data’s conversion services, your old microfilms and microfiche can transfer to digital format. You can free up wasted space and wasted employee hours searching for past data using our microfilm scanning and microfiche scanning services. 

This means you can focus more of your resources on building your business instead of trying to simply remain afloat. And, you’ll help to reduce your carbon footprint. It’s a win-win! 

employee holding binders of microfiche film and documents for filing and organizing and indexing

Digital Media is Everything

Even though microfilm and microfiche are still used and useful today, they are very outdated forms of information storage. The digital age has brought about an entirely new way of life.

What took countless hours of searching is now accessible in mere seconds via a smartphone.

To think, people actually waited in line to get access to information!

Not only is digitizing your records advantageous for ease of access, but once done, the data will never disappear. The infinite cloud storage space will never get damaged by flood, fire, or other acts of God, and will never fade.

You don’t need a big bulky piece of equipment to read it, either. A simple click of any internet-connected device, and you can have full access to your data. River City Data will convert your documents into two types of formats: 

 

  • Tiff (Tagged File Format) and PDF (Portable Document Format). Tiff is the method certified by the National Archives and Records Administration, but isn’t widely used by the public.

 

  • PDF is the preferred format since it is most user-friendly. Thankfully the PDF has been gaining more acceptance by the records industry in recent years. 

rows of chairs at a table with microfiche machines

Need Microfiche Conversion? 

How can River City Data help your company succeed and thrive? Some businesses might think they are saving money by not converting old records. Others have tried scanning their old files using employee resources and scanning equipment. 

But in reality, they are wasting both time and money by not using River City Data. Don’t let this be your company.

Our precise microfilm conversion machines allow our operators to adjust for image quality, specs, and skew. This ensures your data is as good or perhaps even better than the original. In addition, you don’t incur any more wasted employee resource hours doing mundane work. 

River City Data’s Advantage 

River City Data has been in the data conversion business for over 40 years. Our stellar reviews from clients prove we do great work and have adapted well in an ever-changing industry. We strive for excellence and continue to adapt to meet our customer’s needs. 

Based in New London, Minnesota, but accessible to anyone, River City Data is here to help your business succeed. By transferring your old document images into digital, you can ensure your data will be secure for life. Contact us for a free estimate today!

hand hold 35mm film

 

Microfilm scanning services are vital in the 21st century. For much of the 20th century, businesses, libraries, banks, and hospitals used microfilm to store large amounts of records. River City Data can help you convert your business’s stash with their microfilm to digital image services.

Before you convert your microfilm, you may be interested to know its history. Where does microfilm originate? What is it made of, and when was it invented?

microfilm bobbin

What is Microfilm?

You or your business, agency, or organization might have a lot of microfilm to convert, but technology changes quickly. You may have never seen microfilm before, or you may wonder what precisely microfilm is.

The answer lies in the two words that make up the name: micro and film. Microfilm is tiny film negatives, around 1/25th of a document’s original size. Specialized equipment allows users to blow up the document on the film negative to a large scale for viewing. 

A Microhistory of Microfilm

Microfilm is like cloud computing’s great-grandfather. Before the cloud, businesses and organizations needed a way to store all their records. Traditional paper filing became too cumbersome for entities that needed to save a lot of information.

microfilm

John Benjamin Dancer invented microfilm in Liverpool, England, in 1839. His family ran an optical shop as the science of daguerreotype photography was emerging. Luckily for history, Dancer was a dabbler who developed a way to shrink images onto film negatives.

Dancer also invented the first way to blow up small images to larger sizes. He figured out a way to make a six-inch daguerreotype of a flea.

René Dagron patented improved, standardized microfilm technology in France in 1859. The timing of this development proved fortunate. The Franco-Prussian War started a few years later in 1870, and folks needed to send information quickly and imperceptibly. 

Obviously, the internet and telephones did not yet exist. The first permanent transatlantic telegraph cable system was only developed a few years earlier in 1866. To get information in and out of Paris, the military dropped carrier pigeons transporting information out of hot air balloons.

Dagron pitched microfilm to the French government as a way to quickly transmit a lot of military information. He proposed that the military attach microfilm documents to the carrier pigeons. The carrier pigeons faced harrowing danger to bring the microfilm into Paris once the Prussians figured out the ruse.

 

Microfilm did not enjoy widespread use until the early 20th century. In 1906 a pair of Belgians- Goldschmidt and Otlet, wrote an essay arguing libraries could save space by using microfilm. 

After Goldschmidt and Otlet gave a demonstration at the 1913 meeting of the American Library Institute, the practice caught on. Within the next couple of decades, microfilm use was widespread among libraries, even the New York Times and Harvard.

man studying microfilm

Microfilming initiatives continue into the present day.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) still funds microfilming projects. In 1980 the NEH began supporting microfilming of old books whose information was more important than their physical form. This initiative was the Brittle Books Program.

Microfilm vs. Microfiche: What’s the Difference?

Many of us are familiar with microfiche from movies. A hero or heroine in a film has to solve some mystery and goes through old newspapers to find answers. You know the scene: the protagonist labors silently in a dark room. To set the mood, the only light comes from the machine illuminating the concentration on his face.

Is microfiche separate from microfilm? People may be surprised to learn that microfiche is microfilm. The difference is one of format.

Microfilm is a roll of film, which you may be familiar with from traditional cameras and photography. All microfiche is, in essence, is flat microfilm. You may find microfilm rolls in cassettes, cartridges, or reels.

Microfiche can contain fewer documents than microfilm. Their flatness, however, makes them easier to store. 

Now That I Understand More About Microfilm, How Should I Store It?

While microfilm was the most convenient form of document storage for decades, technology has clearly outpaced it. If you want to keep the documents stored on your microfilm but free up space, you need microfilm scanning services.

It is possible to physically preserve microfilm and microfiche. Polyester-based (as opposed to cellulose-based) film correctly stored can last up to 500 years. Correct storage for film means low-humidity, low (but not too low) temperatures can preserve your microfilm and microfiche.

Low-humidity usually means less than 50 percent humidity, and low-temperature is around 70 degrees or lower. Fortunately, microfilm has been polyester-based since the 1970s.

If You Prefer Microfilm Scanning Services to Physical Storage

Data exchange concept between hands of a woman in background

While there are certainly instances where businesses or organizations may still want to physically house microfilm, yours may not. If you can’t or won’t deal with the demands of proper microfilm storage, you need microfilm scanning services. Even if you want to maintain your microfilm physically, digital versions back them up in case of an emergency.

Microfilm scanning services let you preserve the information of the past in an up-to-date format. You need an adaptable scanning service that will allow your record storage to change with the technology of the times.

Currently, the two most widespread digital formats for digitally-scanned documents are PDF and tagged file format (Tiff). The National Archives and Records Administration of the United States endorses Tiff 6 as the standard digital document format. PDFs are gaining acceptance within the record storage space, however.

River City Data for Your Microfilm Scanning Needs

If you are ready to digitize your microfilm, River City Data’s Microfilm to Digital Images service can help. River City Data works with clients to develop a tailored approach to their business or organizational record-storage needs. 

Our user-friendly scanning service creates indexed, searchable digital versions of your old records. We can also preserve old photographs that may be valuable to your organization, or to you personally.

Contact River City Data to begin the process of long-term, secure record preservation. Reach out to our qualified team with your microfilm scanning questions or for information on pricing.