Articles
- The Rock and Roll Public Library
created by Mick Jones of The Clash. A loud, revolutionary collision of "Rock and Roll" and the "Public Library". Genus helps out with the state of the art Book2net Kiosk full colour book scanner.
- The Digital Black Hole -
A report from Jonas Palm, Head of the Preservation Department, National Archives of Sweden, on the cost exercise they ran to compare the long term costs of digital media against paper and microfilm storage. Strangely microfilm came out cheaper and more reliable!
- Why Microfilm? -
A 2008 brochure put together by the State Archives of Illinois, Wisconsin, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, Colorado, Nebraska, Alaska, South Dakota, Oklahoma and Kentucky explaining why they still think that microfilm is the answer for long term information preservation.
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November 2007 - The Guardian scan all their microfilm back copies
to make them digitally available to the public -
They thus achieve document management perfection - instant digital access with the security of knowing that all that information will remain on microfilm for when the next digital storage medium becomes available or this current medium stops being available for any number of reasons!
- Is Microfilm the Holy Grail of the Digital Preservation Community? -
Paul Negus, MD of the Genus Group, made a presentation to the National Preservation Office's "Second Life for Collections" conference that was held at the British Library, Euston Road on Monday 29th October 2007. His presentation discussed the new ways that digital information is being written to microfilm and the amazing new ways microfilm is being used, to the extent that this rebirth of microfilm may well prove to be the Holy Grail that the Digital Preservation Community is looking for. Have a read of his presentation.
- Film is Alive! May 2007 -
Kodak Advert gives results of a survey of 3000 professional photographers. Best quote - "Therefore I have the best of both worlds with scans from film". Exactly as we recommend for your digital documents.
- E-Timecapsule to make history at Stonehenge
Preserve your message for posterity in the Stonehenge E-timecapsule. Create your own corporate or private E-timecapsule.
- Back to the Future?
the whole Betamax/VHS argument starts again with the HD-DVD/Blu-ray format war. Interesting BBC article on the new digital storage debate. Aren't you glad you don't have to keep your digital information for a long time, or do you?
- SMA21 A2 Colour Book Scanner Case Study - University of York -
- Microfilm found after Twin Towers
A strip of microfilm was found weeks after September 11, three blocks away at 2 Chase Plaza.
- CD Rot - May 2004, The Journal News - Word Document
Another example of the frailty of CD's as a storage medium
-
September 2004 - Now you see it, now you don't!
Interesting article on e-mail management or, more precisely, non-management. This appears on the Cyberspeak section of the USA Today web site.
To see the original Australian article see
- Kodak use a combination of the latest document scanners and their Reference Archiving technology to satisfy the business and legal requirements of two French hospitals - Instant Access and Long Term Archive -
- CD-R's
last only twenty months?!
"A Dutch organisation has recently carried out an independant test on the longevity of CD-R's and has produced some very worrying results.
A) Click here to see the web link of a translation of this report - http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/7751
B) Click here to see an Australian follow up article on this report -
Acknowledgement to http://www.apcmag.com
- RLG
Guidlines for Preserving Microfilming Updated. -
The RLG Preservation Microfilming Handbook (1992) and RLG Archives Microfilming Manual (1994) have defined best practice for preservation microfilming since they were published. They are consulted worldwide and are a main standard against which many funding agencies evaluate grant proposals. Now, lessons learned from a decade's work in preservation reformatting have yielded a new suppliment to both publications, the RLG Guidelines for Microfilming to Support Digitization. This publication adivses how to create preservation microfilm that is most amenable to effective and efficient scanning to produce high-quality digital images.
- Film
Based Imaging in the Document Life Cycle
FAQ's for Best Practice - purchase a copy.
- US
Census
US Census converts all digital copies of the 2000 Census to microfilm as the best medium for 72 year migration-free storage
- Microfilm
in the Modern Office
"Surely you must be joking?" by Paul Negus, Managing Director, The Microfilm Shop
- The
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
-
Kodak leaflet on how this act effects your document management policy.
- Introduction
to Microfilm Booklet
A complimentary booklet produced by The Microfilm Shop. Ideal for the microfilm beginner. Ask for your free copy
- Titanic
2020
A just released report from CENSA, a global market development association, notes that dramatic, trillion dollor losses of critical data and legal records will soon occur because of inadequate software infrastructures that we must fix soon
- Case
Study......
How a supplier of music CD's insists on keeping an analogue paper copy of all their records
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Why Microfilm?
Why the US Newspaper project specifies microfilm as the preservation medium.
- NARA/Long-Term
Usability of Optical Media
The National Archives and Records Administration and the Long-Term Usability of Optical Media for Federal Records: Three Critical Problem Areas.
- E-paper
Trail
Do you keep your day to day business information digitally? If so, this article examines what problems you may encounter
- New
Draft Proposal
"Digital Imaging and Preservation Microfilm: The Future of the Hybrid Approach for the preservation of Brittle Books". Ground breaking new report which is essential reading for anyone involved in the microfilm industry.
- Agincourt
Revisited
"We've been beaten by a handful of guys with flying pointy sticks?" by Paul Negus, Managing Director, The Microfilm Shop
- What
Now Henry V?
By Paul Negus, Managing Director, The Microfilm Shop
- Losing
touch with the past
Technology consultant Bill Thompson is worried about losing our digital history
- Digital
Microfilm
Paul Negus, MD of The Microfilm Shop gives his opinion of the future of the microfilm industry.
- Digital
Domesday book lasts 15 years not 1000 -
The £2.5 million BBC Domesday Project to create an up to date new digital Domesday Book is now unreadable. Copy of article that appeared in The Observer March 3rd, 2002.
- Digital
Insurance for Information at Risk -
A strategic overview of digital preservation. This is a very interesting report on the issues you should be considering and worrying about if you want to keep digital files for longer than 5 years.
- Desire
for paperless office thwarted by business practice, human psychology
and new technology
Although a subtle advert for Lexmark's new EDMS software this report is very interesting as it tells of the ever increasing use of paper. At one point it states "....there is no potential replacement for paper that combines all of its business, psychological and technological benefits." We beg to differ! Microfilm is analogue aswell and it only takes up 2% of the space.
- Digital
Domesday book unlocked
A rich digital archive of British life in the 1980s has been brought back to life by researchers from the UK and the US (also see article 16).
- Digital
Records Obscure the past
Interesting article from the BBC which looks at the problem of digital preservation, in particular the UK Parliament's decision not to archive their records digitally!
- Betamax
all over again, now
DVD recorders are set to be an expensive short term tool. We wonder if the same will happen again for DVD's replacement?
- Digital
memory threatened as file formats evolve
excellent article from america on the long term problems of digital information. Again the answer is so simple, just write the digital images to microfilm and they are safe for 500 years in an analogue human-readable format. At any time those images can be scanned back into the digital arena. The solution is so simple.