Get ARE MICROFORMS DEAD ? - Eprints Rclis

The medium has numerous characteristics: It enables libraries to access collections without putting rare, fragile, or valuable items at risk of theft or damage. Microfilm has a one to one ratio to users. ... It is relatively compact, with far smaller storage costs than paper documents.

Computers could also use microfiche to print source code for consumers. However, the downsides piled up at the end of the 20th century, and the history of microfiche and microfilm began to close.

Microfiche and microfilm still continue to exist – for how long is another question given digital advancements. However, microform continues to be used by libraries and other archive institutions.

Microforms--microfilm, microfiche, text/fiche, etc. --have been used in libraries for nearly sixty years. There is now a very large and growing amount of research material--books, journals, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, government documents, dissertations, or anything microfilmable--available in this format.

Patrons must use magnification to use the medium. Reader/scanners can be difficult to operate. Reader/scanners can break down or not be available. Items can be easily misfiled in high density cases. Not as convenient and lacks features available in digital formats.

Because microfiche was introduced much later than microfilm, it played a reduced role in newspaper preservation and government archives; it was more widely used in emerging computer data-storage systems. Eventually, electronic archives replaced microfiche almost entirely, while its cousin microfilm remained separate.

The principal disadvantage of microforms is that the image is (usually) too small to read with the naked eye and requires analog or digital magnification to be read.

Libraries began using microfilm in the mid-20th century as a preservation strategy for deteriorating newspaper collections. Books and newspapers that were deemed in danger of decay could be preserved on film and thus access and use could be increased. Microfilming is also a space-saving measure.