What are the advantages and disadvantages of microform?

Answer 1

Advantages[edit source | editbeta]

The medium has numerous advantages:

• It enables libraries to greatly expand access to collections without putting rare, fragile, or valuable items at risk of theft or damage.
• It is compact, with far smaller storage costs than paper documents. Normally 98 document size pages fit on one fiche, reducing to about 0.25% original material. When compared to filing paper, microforms can reduce space storage requirements by up to 95%.[11]
• It is cheaper to distribute than paper copy. Most microfiche services get a bulk discount on reproduction rights, and have lower reproduction and carriage costs than a comparable amount of printed paper.
• It is a stable archival form when properly processed and stored. Preservation standard microfilms use the silver halide process, creating silver images in hard gelatin emulsion on a polyester base. With appropriate storage conditions, this film has a life expectancy of 500 years.[12]Unfortunately, in tropical climates with high humidity, fungus eats the Gelatin used to bind the silver halide. Thus, diazo-based systems with lower archival lives (20 years) which have polyester or epoxy surfaces are used.
• Since it is analog (an actual image of the original data), it is easy to view. Unlike digital media, the format requires no software to decode the data stored thereon. It is instantly comprehensible to persons literate in the language; the only equipment that is needed is a simple magnifying glass. This eliminates the problem of software obsolescence.
• It is virtually impossible to mutilate. Users cannot tear pages from or deface microforms.
• It has low intrinsic value and does not attract thieves. Few heavily-used microform collections suffer any losses due to theft.
• Prints from microfilm are accepted in legal proceedings as substitutes for original documents.

Disadvantages[edit source | editbeta]

• 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.
• Reader machines used to view microfilm are often difficult to use, requiring users to carefully wind and rewind until they have arrived at the point where the data they are looking for is stored.
• Photographic illustrations reproduce poorly in microform format, with loss of clarity and halftones. However the latest electronic digital viewer/scanners have the ability to scan in gray shade which greatly increases the quality of photographs, but they still can not duplicate the nuances of true gray shade photographs -due to the inherent bi-tonal nature of microfilm.
• Reader-printers are not always available, limiting the user's ability to make copies for their own purposes. Conventional photocopy machines cannot be used.[13]
• Color microform is extremely expensive, thus discouraging most libraries supplying color films. Color photographic dyes also tend to degrade over the long term. This results in the loss of information, as color materials are usually photographed using black and white film.[13]The lack of quality and color images in microfilm, when libraries were discarding paper originals, was a major impetus to Bill Blackbeard and other comic historians' work to rescue and maintain original paper archives of color pages from the history of newspaper comics. Many non-comics color images were not targeted by these efforts and were lost.
• When stored in the highest-density drawers, it is easy to misfile a fiche, which is thereafter unavailable. As a result, some libraries store microfiche in a restricted area and retrieve it on demand. Some fiche services use lower-density drawers with labeled pockets for each card.
• Like all analog media formats, microfiche is lacking in features enjoyed by users of digital media. Analog copies degrade with each generation, while some digital copies have much higher copying fidelity. Digital data can also be indexed and searched easily.
• Reading microfilms on a machine for some time may cause headache and/or eyestrain.

Answer 2

Advantages of microform include space-saving storage, long-term preservation, and high-quality image resolution. Disadvantages may include the need for specialized equipment to view and print, potential deterioration over time if not properly stored, and limited accessibility compared to digital formats.