MICROFORMS: COLLECTION MANAGEMENT ISSUES

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MICROFORMSCOLLECTION MANAGEMENT ISSUES

• LIBR 520 Collection Management
• Jesse Gardner, mona loh, Manami Saito
• 20 March 2006

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DEFINITION

• Microform
• A generic term for a highly reduced photographic
  copy of text and/or images stored on a
  translucent medium (microfiche or microfilm) or
  an opaque medium such as card stock (micro-opaque
  or aperture card). Reader-printer machines are
  required to view and make hard copies. (ODLIS)

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HISTORY

• 1839 John Dancer
• 1870 Franco-Prussian War
• 1930s American academia
• 1944 Fremont Rider
• 1950s 60s Library funding
• 1970s The Miniaturization Craze
• 1980s Emergence of other technologies

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FORMATS

• Roll microfilm
• 35mm or 16mm
• Reel, cartridge or cassette

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FORMATS

• Roll microfilm 35mm or 16mm reels

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FORMATS

• Microfilm cartridges

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FORMATS

• Microfilm reader

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FORMATS

• Microfilm reader

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FORMATS

• Roll microfilm
• Advantages
• Ease to use
• Less likely to be misfiled than microfiche
• Less likely to be damaged by fingerprints
• Easy labelling
• Long microfilm life expectancy

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FORMATS

• Roll microfilm
• Disadvantages
• Cumbersome
• Motion sickness
• Wear and tear
• Image quality
• Poor reproduction
• Cost of equipment

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FORMATS

• Microfiche
• 105mm x 148mm
• 75mm x 125mm
• Images are reduced 24x
• Ultramicrofiche
• Images are reduced 90x

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FORMATS

• Microfiche

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FORMATS

• Ultramicrofiche

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FORMATS

• Microfiche
• Advantages
• Well suited for individual titles and frequently
  updated material
• Randomly filmed titles interfiled easily
• Cost of equipment

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FORMATS

• Microfiche
• Disadvantages
• Higher reduction ratios
• More liable to damage from contact with surface
• Time-consuming processing
• Prone to misfiling, loss and theft

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FORMATS

• Aperture Cards
• A piece of card stock with one or more small,
  cut-out windows in which individual frames from a
  strip of microfilm are mounted

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FORMATS

• Aperture Card

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FORMATS

• Aperture Cards
• Advantages
• Filed and used independently
• Data recording on the card itself
• Suited for single-item documents

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FORMATS

• Film Jackets
• Produced from 8mm, 16mm, 35mm and 105mm film
• Holds only 36 images

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FORMATS

• Film Jackets

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FORMATS

• Film Jackets
• Advantages
• Permits manual annotation
• Easy to update
• May be duplicated

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FORMATS

• Microfiche, aperture card, and film jacket reader

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FORMATS

• Micro-opaques
• Micro-images on opaque photographic paper

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FORMATS

• Micro-opaques

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FORMATS

• Micro-opaques
• Disadvantages
• Special equipment
• Image quality

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USES

• Microforms
• Primary applications
• As a means of protection
• Permanent copies
• Distant copies
• Space reduction
• Republication of OP material

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USES

• Newspapers
• Microfilm is preferable to the original because
• Size of originals
• Binding costs
• Poor paper stock of newspapers
• File integrity

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USES

• Journals
• Using microfilm as replacement or back-up medium.
• Advantages
• Theft/mutilation
• Length of article

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USES

• Research Materials/Preservation
• Large-scale micro-publishing projects
• - A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in
  England, Scotland and Ireland and of English
  Books Printed Abroad, 1475-1640
• - Early American Imprints
• Original papers and historical manuscripts
• Canadian Institute for Historical
  Microproductions

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USES

• Cataloguing
• Basic cataloguing tools like
• National Union Catalog
• Library of Congress Catalogs

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USES

• Others
• College catalogues / university calendars
• Technical reports
• Government publications
• Telephone books

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UBC MICROFORM COLLECTIONS

• Interview with Mary Luebbe,
• Reference Librarian Humanities and Social
  Sciences

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WHAT IS IN THE COLLECTION??

• - Over 5 million titles
• - Larger than the librarys book collection
• - Most microforms are kept at Koerner library

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ORGANIZATION BY FORMAT
Microcard 18th century pamphlets, journals
Microfiche Microlog (Canadian
Government) CIHM (early Canadiana)
NTIS (National Technical
Information) ASI (American Statistical
Index)
UBC theses Microfilm Newspapers

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ORGANIZATION IN THE CATALOGUE

• In the UBC catalogue
• - Eighty large microform sets
• - Can be browsed by alphabetical order,
  chronological order or by subject
• - Often no records for individual titles
• - Also print catalogues available-
• Microform Research Collection- A Guide

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www.library.ubc.ca/micset
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NEWSPAPERS

• Examples of Newspapers on Microfilm
• Calgary Herald Christian Science Monitor
• Financial Times Gazette (Montréal)
• Globe and Mail Guardian (Manchester)
• Moscow News National Post
• New York Times Observer (London)
• Vancouver Sun Toronto Daily Star
• When the microfilm version of a newspaper is
  received the newsprint is discarded.

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http//toby.library.ubc.ca/webpage/348micro
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OTHER MATERIALS

• Other material stored on microforms
• UBC theses on microfiche (from various
  faculties)
• University and college calendars, from 1979-1999
  only, are on microfiche
• The Fine Arts Library Picture Collection also
  lists several microform collections among its
  twenty-five picture collection

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READING MICROFORMS

• In Koerner Library there are
• 16 microfilm readers
• 6 fiche readers
• 2 microcard/microprint readers
• There are also microfilm/fiche readers in
  libraries that carry microforms (Education
  Library, Fines Arts Library)

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MICROFORMS VS ONLINE DATA

• With Microforms you are able to
• see how newsprint was originally
• formatted, pictures, font, etc
• acquire collection without licensing fees
• (Cost of Microforms-Approx 55/ fiche set
  (2-5 slides))
• Permanently own once it has been acquired

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COLLECTIONS POLICY

• UBCs Microforms Collection Policy
• Aim is to collect materials where academic work
  is being done
• Requests from faculty to liaison librarian

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CURRENT ACQUISITIONS

• - Major newspapers from Proquest
• - Microlog supplements print collection in
  depository library
• US government documents (ASI, NTIS), not
  available on web permanently

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CALL NUMBERS

• How are microforms catalogued?
• - Microfilm AW 1
• - Microfiche AW 2, AW 4, AW 5, or AW 6.
• (major sets are arranged alphabetically by
  title)
• - Microcard Call numbers begin with AW 2
• - Microprint AW 10 (in storage)

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PUBLIC LIBRARY MICROFORMS COLLECTION

• Greater Victoria Public Library
• Vancouver Public Library

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PUBLIC LIBRARIES

• Libraries and Staff Interviewed
• Greater Victoria Public Library (Magazines and
  Newspapers). Supervisor 20 Dec. 2005
• GVPL (MN). Additional Staff 13 Feb. 2006
• Vancouver Public Library (Newspapers and
  Magazines). Tara OCoffey, Librarian II 22 Feb.
  and (email) 7 Mar. 2006

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GVPL MICROFORM

• Exclusively Microfilm, for instance
• Passenger Lists (Immigration by Sea) for
  Vancouver, Montreal, and Halifax (various dates
  spanning 1866 to 1922).
• Canada and B.C. Census Data (1666 to 1906, when
  applicable)
• Financial Post back-issues
• Decreasing rapidly in use with reliable stock
  market information online.
• Vancouver Sun (1942 1953 and 1988 current)
• Missing issues not replaced available elsewhere.
• Globe and Mail (Jan. 1977 current).
• New York Times (January 1939 to October 1997).
• Collection ceased due to budgetary concerns
  available elsewhere.

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AND MORE

• The Victoria Times Colonist and predecessors
• Times Colonist September 1980 Current
• Victoria Daily Times 1884 August 1980
• Victoria Daily Colonist 1907 July 1980
• Note VPL has many more B.C. Newspapers.
• Why Microforms? Fewer of the management, storage,
  and (especially) preservation issues than are
  inherent in newsprint.
• Consensus here by both GVPL and VPL

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TECHNOLOGY

• Microform Readers
• Six at GVPL, 16 at VPL (1 is InfoTrac)
• Use results in wear on the machines
• Replacement vs. Repair
• The libraries prefer the latter - Budgetary
  concern.
• VPL is more likely to replace a machine if it
  wore out from high use repair would only be a
  temporary solution.
• Alternatives to Microform?
• VPL has full-text access but lack of images may
  be a concern to many users.

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PURPOSES OF USE

• At GVPL it is primarily popular (local)
  research.
• What was in the news?
• Local History (People Events)
• Genealogical research
• passenger lists and obituaries
• VPL has a bit more scholarly research activity,
  but is generally similar.

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BUDGETARY CONCERNS

• Budget
• Both VPL and GVPL have a Microforms budget line
  within Newspapers Magazines budgets (assessed
  yearly).
• Inadequate budget results range missing from
  Vancouver Sun or New York Times 1997 to present
  at GVPL.
• Technology is included in the budget both
  locations prefer repairs to replacements (done if
  absolutely necessary)

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SPATIAL CONCERNS

• Space
• GVPL ample space for and in cabinets.
• VPL growing space issues (not much room for
  additional cabinets) in the Newspapers and
  Magazines Division are partially resolved by use
  of Special Collections.
• Applies only to Newspapers
• Items put here tend toward oldest items, limited
  print-runs, and least-use newspapers.

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(DE)SELECTION in MICROFORMS

• Reasons for or against continuing a title
• Availability of other access points?
• (GVPL) Vancouver Sun on Microfilm can be found
  elsewhere - i.e. VPL (ILL?)
• (GVPL) Times Colonist not electronically
  accessible to any degree like the depth of the
  microfilm collection.
• (VPL) access by Interlibrary Loan provided.
• GVPL has ILL too but this wasnt a given
  response.