In a message dated 2/9/99 12:38:30 AM Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

> Could and would anyone give me advice about using microfilm. My grandfather
>  and his father and uncle published weekly newspapers in Minn. from 1883 to
>  1936. I want to view the papers and get them into some form so I can fly
bit
>  and pieces around the net.

Jim:

Are the newspapers on microfilm already? If they are, maybe it would be
possible to scan them, image by image. If not, I think that the companies who
"do" microfilming are moving to digital -- I heard a presentation last year
from someone who was putting archival stuff on CDs. Sorry, can't remember the
name of the company. It wasn't cheap.

Last year, I was working with a historian in NJ who wanted to take selected
images off a microfilm. While my HP photo/slide scanner could have handled the
format, it would have required cutting + resplicing the film to get to the
image he wanted (my little scanner can take 6" strips maximum). We would have
had to make a sacrificial duplicate of the microfilm, I think. Maybe there is
a imaging outfit that would be able to scan the entire roll, image by image,
but that was too expensive for us to even think about ... Maybe that's
something to think about.

And, by the way... you can always come over to Montclair and put it on
Chriftopher'f reader!

Mary