I started to respond to Aidan Jones' original e-mail at the beginning of December but my response was never finished and sent. So prompted by Aidan's recent update here are my thoughts. 

I was interested to know what software and set up Cumbria has bought. We purchased a Canon microfilm scanner 400 and Covergold Locator 400/800 software some years ago and were at first worried by the same issues Aidan raised. However the software is so awful that only I ever attempt to use it and even then I end up tearing my hair out by the end of the day. The other issue we have is that our IT department would like to upgrade the PC to Windows XP but they can't because then the software wouldn't work at all and Covergold have told us that they did not develop the software. So I was interested to see that Cumbria's software is Covergold Locator and it might prompt me to further investigations.

In general I would be wary of users downloading onto their own storage media, as far as I'm aware no one has ever asked to do so, and we would probably expect to charge in a similar way to the way we do for hard copies, which is 25p per sheet if the customer does it themselves and 50p if a member of staff does it for them. 

Sorry for the delay in entering the debate. 

Pamela Birch
Beds & Luton Archives

-----Original Message-----
From: Archivists, conservators and records managers.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Aidan Jones
Sent: 12 December 2005 15:49
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Microfilm readers & film scanners


I don't suppose that Cumbria is the only Archive Service which is
acquiring/which has acquired a microfilm reader-printer with an associated
computer, equipped with film-scanning software.  Using this equipment, one
can easily digitise individual frames or sets of microfilm, e.g. for
Emailing or for placing on a website.  There is also the further option of
cropping out old newspaper photographs for possible extra enhancement,
using photo editing software.

To clarify the issues in my mind, I would be interested to receive comments
on practice elsewhere, regarding any or regarding all of the following:

* Is the computer scanner intended for staff use only, or are the public
also permitted to use it?  If the staff have to carry out image-scanning on
behalf of the public, is there a charge?  How much?

* If the public are permitted to do their own scanning from microfilm, is
there a charge?  How much?

* Presumably it will occur to some researchers that they might now plug a
flash drive (otherwise known as a pen drive or memory stick) into the
computer, which would then download any scanned images.  This could probably
obviate the purchase of conventional print-outs from the reader-printer,
since such images could subsequently be edited and printed out at home.
(Barrow Library, next door to the record office, actually sells such memory
sticks to their Internet users for about £10 - which I presume would easily
be capable of storing quite a large number of images.)

So do other Archive Services permit this?  And do they also make a charge
for allowing the downloading of images?   Leaving aside possible copyright
issues, it could otherwise lose quite a bit of income from the
reader-printers - which are already not exactly cheap to maintain.

* Are there significant risks of spreading viruses through the re-use of pen
drives?

I would be pleased to read any replies, either on-list or off-list.  (If
there is any significant interest in the topic, I could possibly provide a
summary at a later date.)

Aidan Jones,
Cumbria Record Office & Local Studies Library, Barrow.


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