Materials on microcard Mary Wilke 03 Feb 1997 17:55 UTC
After reading some of the postings regarding microcards and knowing CRL was recently involved with some attempt at solving the problem, I asked the person at CRL who was involved with this attempt. Linda Naru, Director of Member Services for CRL, was kind enough to provide me with a report she sent to the ALA ILL Committee. She also noted that a meeting of the ALCTS/PARS Micropublishing Discussion Group will be discussing this. > Improving access to materials in micro-opaque format. > >CRL has a vast collection of titles in microcard and microprint format. >This includes sets that are frequently requested, such as Early American >imprints; early shipments of the set Nineteenth century drama; British >sessional papers; early groups of the French, German and Spanish drama >series. As micro-opaque readers become rarer and reader/printers become >almost extinct, researchers find this format more irksome than useful. > >One option for improving access to materials in micro-opaque format is to >replace whatever sets now are available in microfiche. Several sets that >CRL has have been reissued in microfiche; however, staff calculated >replacement costs to be approximately $420,000, making this is an >alternative the CRL membership would not accept. Another option is to add >the capability of making copies from micro-opaques as items are requested >through interlibrary loan. > >CRL now has a Readex Model 7 micro-opaque reader in its reading room, but >this is not a reader/printer. Since spring 1996, CRL has been researching >equipment that would enable it to supply copies (or electronic output) from >its micro-opaque collection. > >CRL staff has worked with a couple of vendors who market a product made by >ScreenScan that mounts a scanner on the display of microform reader >equipment and outputs a copy of the screen display to a laser printer, fax >machine, or electronic file. The vendors see their primary market in >microfilm and microfiche readers, but agreed to adapt the product for the >micro-opaque viewer. Using CRL's Model 7, they built a scanner that >mounted on the display screen, scanned the image, and printed a copy of the >screen image on a laser printer. Unfortunately, CRL's Model 7 does not >project a sharp enough image to make a the scan legible, therefore the copy >was illegible (this results from the performance of the Model 7, not the >ScreenScan equipment). > >CRL's experience with the scanner product seemed promising; however, now we >need to have a micro-opaque reader that produces a legible screen image. > >ScreenScan's products range from a lower-end scanner-printer (model 200) to >a more sophisticated computer-aided system that enables the user to >manipulate and enhance the screen image. Prices are in the $5,000-$10,000 >range. ***************************************** ***************************************** Mary Wilke Head of Acquisitions Center for Research Libraries 6050 S. Kenwood Ave Chicago, IL 60637-2804 Tel: (773) 955-4545 ext. 351 Fax: (773) 955-4339 <wilke@CRLMAIL.UCHICAGO.EDU>