Monday 28 July 2014

Know More About Microfiche And Microfiche Scanners

By Paulette Mason


Microfiche is made of a transparent film and is commonly used to store information, most of them are in a miniaturized form. Because of the thinness and its small sized film, this is commonly used in libraries or businesses to store millions of information without taking a lot of space. Microphotographs can also be digitalized by using microfiche scanners. Microfiche by the way, is a type of microform which is a common term used to describe several ways that provide the same storage and miniature copies of a document.

As we all know, most museums have documents that need to be preserved. Because of this, they prefer fiches to be their primary way of storing these documents compared to the digital ones. This is because the digital ones do not hold enough data that can be stored in a longer duration of time.

Since it is micro, this cannot be viewed by just inspecting it with your eyes. For you to be able to access or observe the content of a fiche, you have to utilize a specialized machine for that sole purpose. This machine will magnify the micro document for you to be able to see its content.

Today, optical scanners are now available. The scanner works like a printer which will scan in the fiche and transfer the scanned information to the computer. Once it is already scanned, it can be converted to a digital format for readability.

The most popular way of converting a fiche to a digital version is by converting it to PDF. Some formats, is compatible as well, like TIFF which is an image based format. The process of conversion will result in a multiple pages of PDF file.

Nowadays, modern computers need a certain kind of software to install for you to be able to use it in a way you want it to. In contrary, micro photographs have specific machines that only function to read micro images without installing software, updates and license keys. This makes it a lot more convenient to use than a computer.

All fiches are made with a polyester material in which the images or a document is printed. The material used is very stable and if kept in a controlled temperature can last up to 500 years. On the other hand, most CD ROMS nowadays can only last between 75 to 100 years, depending on the material it was made of.

Some organizations, like those organizations that has valuable documents that need to be preserved uses fiche to prevent loss or damage. This kind of data storage can be beneficial for the safeness of your data because of the special machines that it needs to have before it can be of use. In fact, this format can be a little interest of some thieves.

There are a lot of ways you can store your valuable documents, but ensuring that it is safe is the most important factor. If you consider using a digital format, then make sure it is all backed up and scanned thoroughly. Either way, if you prefer microfiches, then keep in a controlled environment, to ensure it will last.




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