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Is Your Microfiche and Microfilm Archive Deteriorating?

By BMI Imaging Systems

02/28/2010 In today's fast paced world of digital information, microfiche and microfilm are viewed as old technologies. However, a large quantity of information, much of it unique, continues to exist solely on microfiche and microfilm. Deterioration of these archives is a growing problem and if microfiche and microfilm collections are not examined, some organizations could find themselves in the possession of damaged or unusable records. The safest way to avoid this problem is to consider a microfiche scanning solution in order to move these archives to a digital format. The right microfiche scanning solution converts your records accurately and at a high image quality that minimizes illegible, digital documents.
A Ticking Time Bomb
Many organizations, both public and private, house microfiche and microfilm archives. Large archives often contain a mixture of new and older microfilm, microfiche and even aperture cards. Deterioration, tearing and bending can occur as researchers use the archive. This problem is compounded as reader printers begin to break and need repair.

In many cases, microfiche and microfilm collections suffer from neglect. As a storage medium, it doesn't have the budgetary appeal that other digital projects have (e.g. new networks, applications and databases). A qualified staff person may not be dedicated to the microfiche and microfilm archive. As older microfiche and microfilm begin to deteriorate, it's critical that someone within the organization be qualified enough to identify the issue before it is too late.
A Difficult Choice
In today's economy, budgets are stretched like they have never been before. Spending money to maintain an archaic microfiche or microfilm archive with slow retrieval times does not often make sense. Digitally converting these records usually makes the most sense. However, finding a cost effective and secure microfiche scanning solution requires careful consideration.
Preparing for a Microfiche Scanning Solution
What about possible solutions? An essential first step is for the organization to examine their microfiche and microfilm archive with a professional microfiche scanning bureau. Is the information important for long-term archive? How is the information organized? How often is the information within the archive accessed? Is the quality of the microfiche or microfilm archive in good, fair or poor shape? These are just some of the questions that a trained microfiche and microfilm consultant can go through with your organization to determine an optimal microfiche scanning solution.
When considering a microfiche scanning service bureau, facilities, staff and technology are important. Sensitive information is often contained on microfilm and microfiche records; thus, the security of the microfiche scanning service bureau is a critical component to your decision. Finally, you are only going to convert these records once. Accurately converting your records (minimizing lost documents during conversion) and improving the digital image quality are critical components to the microfiche scanning solution. The best microfiche scanning service bureau will have the right staff and technology to ensure security, conversion accuracy and digital image quality of your records.
BMI Imaging
BMI Imaging, Inc. serves commercial and government agencies throughout the United
States and has developed a customer list of more than 2,000 accounts, some of which we have served for more than 20 years. This customer loyalty stems from our consistent, high-quality and customized microfilm, microfiche and aperture card scanning and conversion services. BMI is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, with an additional production and sales facility in Sacramento.

Contact us to learn more.
(800) 359-3456
info@bmiimaging.com

www.BMIImaging.com

About This Author

BMI Imaging Systems

Trust BMI Imaging with your document imaging and document management requirements. We treat each and every document as unique, which is the standard that has drawn thousands of companies and government agencies to us to assist them with large-scale document imaging and microfilm conversion projects…

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