Microform: Preserving Documents and Saving Space in Libraries since 1896

Before the advent of the digital document recording and storage techniques we have today many institutions turned to microform to help condense and preserve their collections.  Microform, miniature photographs or micro-reproductions, contained on either film or paper were more cost effective to produce than traditional books and took up far less storage space.  Libraries and archival facilities still maintain their microform collections, though methods of digital preservation have surpassed microform in almost all respects.  If you have ever done research in a Family History Center before you most likely looked into ordering microfilm from their collection.

The phenomenon of microphotography was developed in 1839.  For a while it was counted as little more than an amusing pastime by most, but by 1851 people began proposing its potential use in document preservation.  By 1896 the idea had begun to catch on and microform continued to grow in sophistication and popularity from then on. 

The most prevalent types of microform are microfilm and microfishe.  Microfilm is printed on a reel of photographic film while microfishe is printed on a flat sheet of paper.  Godfrey Library founder Fremont Rider tried to popularize another type of microform, the microcard, which was similar to microfishe except for being printed on cardboard rather than photographic paper.  A convenient way to enlarge the microcard images for easy reading was never fully developed and Rider's invention did not catch on.

Today microform continues to hold one advantage over digital preservation: you need no special software or up to date hardware to view it.  All one needs is a magnifying glass.  That is, of course, the bare minimum needed and is not recommended if one actually wishes to be able to read what was preserved.  Microfilm and fishe readers work by displaying the image recorded onto a screen for easy viewing.  More advanced readers also have printing capabilities.  Though they can occasionally be unwieldy and difficult to use, it certainly beats squinting through a magnifying glass! 

Microform is particularly useful in the preservation of such documents that are prone to damage or printed on poor quality paper that may deteriorate with time.  Newspapers, magazines, and vital records were all perfect candidates for microform preservation.  Even though digital preservation has advanced far enough to make microform near obsolete, do not discount investigating various microformed documents in your genealogical research!  Many records have yet to be converted to digital content and are only available as either originals or microform copies.  Family History Centers, like the one at the Godfrey, not only have microfilm readers, but can also help you order films of the documents you need from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.  Who knows, you might just find the one elusive record you've been looking for! 

This Week in the Scholar

In addition to creating the American Genealogical-Biographical Index Godfrey Library founder Fremont Rider published a three volume set of the genealogy of the Rider (Ryder) families.  This set, titled, Preliminary Materials for a genealogy of the Rider (Ryder) Families in the United States*, is now a part of the Godfrey Scholar+ Online Library!

Don't let the "Preliminary Materials" portion of the title deter you: in these three volumes Fremont Rider compiled information regarding members from forty independent Rider/Ryder families by searching through over twenty thousand books, over two thousand probate manuscripts and vital records, and engaging in detailed correspondence with nearly four hundred members of the Rider/Ryder families.  In his own words Rider states that this work, "is intended to furnish a foundation upon which, perhaps, later "Rider" genealogists may usefully build.  In the meantime it will provide those seeking the genealogical background of this wide-spread plexus of families with a great deal of basic data."

Like the AGBI the Rider (Ryder) Genealogy is arranged according to the "Rider Trace" System of Presentation.  Persons are listed alphabetically by last name.  Under each person's name is a small selection of relevant information which may include the date and place of birth, spouse, children, and other important dates.  Notations as to where the information was originally found are also listed under the names.  The key to decipher the abbreviations abbreviated notations is located in the colored pages of Volume 1.

A Rider (Ryder) Genealogy finding aid will be available soon.  In the finding aid we will provide a key for notation abbreviations and links to the sources referenced (when possible).

Other Additions

Military
Histories of the Thirty-Third, Thirty-Seventh, Thirty-Eighth, Forty-Second, and Forty-Fourth Regiments from Massachusetts in the Civil War*
Histories of the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Twelfth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Regiments from New Hampshire in the Civil War*

State and Local Histories
The History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts*

*Searchable

Not a Scholar?  Visit our website to subscribe today or call the library at (860) 346-4375.

The Research Library in the Modern Era

In 1944 Godfrey founder Fremont Rider addressed what he perceived as a growing problem in research libraries in his book The Scholar and the Future of the Research Library: A Problem and its Solution.  The problem then, as it is now to an extent, was that the number of books available was growing at such a rate that research libraries would soon no longer have the space or staff to maintain a complete, yet modern, collection.  He proposed a more streamlined system of interlibrary loans as well as his invention, microform cards, small cards containing miniaturized pages of books, as parts of the solution. 

  

The advance of digital storage techniques curtailed much of Rider’s worry over a library’s limited physical storage space.  But at the same time technological innovations, particularly the rise of the internet, created a host of new problems for libraries. 

Scholars like Rider could not possibly imagine the incredible amount of information now available to the public at the touch of a button.  Websites like Archives.org and GoogleBooks allow people to read complete texts without leaving the comfort of their home or paying a cent.  JSTOR and other digital repositories grant access to innumerable articles regarding every subject imaginable.  And we cannot forget Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.com, where novice and expert researchers can single out individual names in documents from all over the world right from their computer.   With such resources as these, never mind the rise in digital reader devices, one might wonder if libraries and books will find themselves going the way of the cassette tape and typewriter. 

To survive research libraries are becoming more like their online only competitors.  Whereas most research libraries, the Godfrey included, used to focus solely on their print collections, by necessity the growth and maintenance of their digital collections is now just as important, if not more so.  The Godfrey spent years researching, experimenting with, and improving our digital library.  As you read this the Scholar is undergoing another set of changes.  We are discarding unwieldy PDFs in favor of the Page Viewer, not only eliminating loading time but also allowing all of our typed documents to be searchable! 

As of right now the Godfrey Scholar contains five hundred and thirty-five books, with more added weekly!  Certainly this is just a drop in the bucket compared to our print collection, but in time we hope to bring more and more of our unique print content to the Scholar.  In particular the Godfrey is in possession of many family histories and handwritten records that are unavailable anywhere else! 

Libraries face more obstacles than ever if they wish to survive in present times: obstacles that many are already surmounting and emerging stronger than before.  In the end computers, digital storage, and online collections only make is easier to perform a library’s primary function to preserve and share information with the public.  The research library in the modern era, while vastly different than the model proposed by Fremont Rider, will certainly be around for years to come.