The technology of scanning microfilm to a digital format is now well
establised. Can I recommend colleagues take a look at the British Library
Newspaper Library site for an example of scanned 35mm microfilm, which is
now available with full-text searching using software developed by Olive
Software Inc?
For some time a number of very high quality scanners have been available,
most notably the Sunrise P Scanner, though most services use a bureau to
save on the high purchase cost of the equipment.
To date, the missing link in accessing the microfilm once scanned has been
the software to transform the digital form into searchable text. You can see
that Olive Software has cracked this when you look at the BLNL site and
others are sure to follow and develop their own packages.
Scanning archival-quality microfilm to a digital medium using a high-quality
scanner and allowing searching through packages such as Olive Software's is
one of the strongest arguments for the continued use of microfilm, which
remains the safest long-term preservation medium available today.
John Lauder
Project Director
NEWSPLAN 2000 Project
References:
www.NEWSPLAN2000.org
www.Olivesoftware.com
http://www.bl.uk/collections/newspapers.html
Coming soon to The British Library Galleries :
Trading Places : the East India Company and Asia (from 24th May)
Magic Pencil : Children's Book Illustration Today (from 1st November)
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