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Migrating Microfilm, Microfiche and Aperture Card Records
Enhancing Quality & Preserving Record Context after Conversion
By Brad Penfold, BMI Imaging Systems (http://www.bmiimaging.com/)
Printable Version of this Article
When evaluating microfilm-based conversion solutions, consider the following: 1. Conversion Accuracy 2. Preservation of Information Context After Conversion 3. Image Enhancement 4. Affordability 5. Integration with Current Systems |
Commercial organizations and government agencies continue to pursue the model of a comprehensive, computerized database of information. As these organizations look at microfilm conversion projects, consideration should be given to maintaining the true value of the archival microfilm data by presenting it as it was originally created, with all the detail intact.
The Challenges with Microfilm are Well Known
Microfilm, microfiche and aperture cards are all well-known technologies that have been used to archive records for over 50 years. As an alternative to paper, microfilm-based media has proven more compact, less costly and more stable for long-term archival purposes. While microfilm has well-known disadvantages when compared to digital imaging, including access time and cost, some of the advantages of the microfilm records should not be lost in the conversion to digital.
Two Important Benefits of Microfilm
Despite the challenges with microfilm records, there are two qualities that these records possess:
1. They are the complete records. All too often, traditional microfilm scanning solutions eliminate much of the context of the records that film provides.
2. They are high quality records. The microfilm images themselves are analog with a detail that equates to a 1,200 DPI JPG image. Traditional microfilm scanning services convert microfilm rolls to single-page 200 or 300 DPI bitonal TIFFs – as a result, much of the quality of the images can be lost.
New Solutions
Companies and government agencies in the process of searching for microfilm conversion or microfiche scanning services are finding solutions on the market that are specifically designed to convert these film archives. Recognizing that the complete migration of data is necessary, these solutions offer near-100 percent microfilm conversion accuracy, preservation of the context of information after conversion, and greatly enhanced image quality of the entire archive. Providing the records managers and researchers all of the original record quality can only enhance the accuracy of the search results.
Conversion Accuracy & Quality
During the microfilm-to-digital conversion process, traditional scanning services search the output of scanners for detectable images. In many cases, historical information is stored on old microfilm or microfiche that is in a condition that negatively affects this output. As a result, images are often missed as part of the conversion process. Most importantly, as part of the conventional microfilm conversion process, the individual images are disassociated from their context in the microfilm roll. The indexing process, which is a manual operation, introduces an additional process that often leads to misnamed and therefore lost images. No multi-level data entry process can assure absolute fidelity of the original microfilm sequence or document completeness. Even results of 99.5% accuracy can lead to thousands of errors, resulting in hundreds of lost documents, or worse, lost pages of documents.
Products now on the market can create a digital replica of microfilm records, including the look and feel of the original records, along with providing adjustable grayscale images for image enhancement. No images are dissociated and no keying is required after conversion to reassemble these records. As a result, the risk of losing documents during conversion is greatly reduced. Moreover, having the records appear in their original form can provide valuable reference during examination.
Scanning the film to grayscale and having a software program that allows for adjusting the image quality at the end user's workstation makes the images usable when they otherwise are not. With adjustable grayscale images, difficult to read postings from folders can be enhanced and made readable. What would otherwise appear as scratched or faded bitonal TIFF images can be enhanced and adjusted in grayscale to deal with the specific image problem - too light, too dark, not enough contrast - problems all too frequent with standard film-to-image conversion solutions.
This P.O. has been converted from film as a bitonal image. Much of the information is illegible. |
Grayscale enables the user to adjust the brightness and contrast of the image until each section is legible. NOTE: Built-in redaction enables sensitive information to be temporarily or permanently redacted. |
Affordability
In some cases, traditional microfilm scanning services may have been considered but in the end determined to be too expensive. Newer solutions on the market take into account that much of the information residing on microfilm, microfiche and aperture cards is historical and often infrequently accessed. As a result, affordability is a must to justify the conversion of these records.
These new solutions have incorporated new technologies within their offerings that have enabled document conversion and document management solution service bureaus to bring microfilm-to-digital conversion solutions to market at previously unheard of prices.
Integration with Current Systems
New solutions are offering tight integration with current digital systems. For example, users can easily import historical documents into current systems with a touch of a button. To prevent users from having to learn a new interface, current system interfaces can be updated with functionality that enables easy record recall from the newly created microfilm conversion digital archive.
Conclusion
The overall goal is to provide rapid workstation and Internet-based access to a complete set of business and government records, ensuring that all records will be easily accessible long into the future. Successfully migrating old microfilm, microfiche and aperture card data is a key part of this strategy. Businesses government agencies have the confidence knowing their complete set of records has been accurately converted. Examiners are able to search for records using the same process as they did before, mitigating the risk of unsuccessful record searches and errors.
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.