Can MicroFilm Be Converted to Digital Formats

Often the need arises for a microfilm to be converted in to a digital format. Often this format is either stored in a server, in the “cloud”, external hard drive, thumb drive, DVD, CD or another data format. There are wide arrays of reasons as to why people would convert microfilm to a digital format. Some of the key reasons are film damage, hard to access microfilm, hard to share the data, length in time to retrieve information, etc.

Can Microfilm be converted to digital format?

Converting microfilm to digital format is a very simple and 3 step process. Often this process is done by professionals who deal with microfilm conversion and also with digital formatting. The process of converting microfilm to digital format is:

Step 1: The microfilm is scanned and the data is uploaded to an electronic media.

Step 2: As it is being scanned, the data is divided into various files as specified by the user. The file name or index, can be entered manually or extracted from the microfilm itself, for example the “account number”. The index can be entered into a database for easy of retrieval.

Step 3: The digital data can now be copied on a portable data format like a DVD, CD, Pen drive, etc. This allows the user to have greater ease of access to the files.

Advantages of the converting Microfilm to Digital format:

The main advantages of converting microfilm to digital format are-

•           Often medical microfilm faces the problem of the film shrinking overtime resulting in image loss. When the microfilm is converted to digital format, the image will stay the same for millennia.

•           The microfilm that has been scanned can now be zoomed in on and a greater and clearer image can be obtained of the medical image.

•           Often the microfilm cannot be seen on the projector as with every passing day the equipment to view such files is becoming harder to find.