We have a local company that has an impressive list of clients. BackStage Library Works. http://www.bslw.com/ James Gilbert, BS, MLIS Systems Librarian Whitehall Township Public Library 3700 Mechanicsville Road Whitehall, PA 18052 610-432-4339 ext: 203 -----Original Message----- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Matt Sherman Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2017 11:43 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Good Tools for Microfilm Scanning Thanks for the info John, Jim, and Art. As a follow up to the list, does anyone know of any scanner rental services? Or a decent service to do the digitization work for a reasonable price? I need to provide all the options to my boss and sadly this information is a real pain to sort through via web searches. On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 12:06 PM, Art Rhyno. <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Hi Matt, > > If you are pressed for funds, you can do a lot with a standard camera, > a light table, and a macro lens. We have a set of about 15 reels of > 19th century local newspapers where the microfilm was produced in the > 1950s and they were sent back by a commercial scanner as being > "unworkable". There's a sample here [1] of what we can get from the > camera, and a video of the process [2]. These papers are still a > challenge but I think the camera itself fares well. I borrowed a $600 > macro lens from a friend to compare it to the much cheaper Raynox > macro lens ($60 or so), and I found that it didn't make any > difference. For that matter, a $7 magnifying glass did the same thing but it would drive you crazy trying to keep things in focus. > > I suspect a mirrorless camera would be the way to go for high volumes, > many cameras have a "preview" function that has slightly less overhead > than a regular camera shot, but the mirrors inside cameras are held by > fairly flimsy plastic and are probably a weak point. Where this > approach might have the greatest advantage is with microfiche, a > format that does not tend to respond well to scanning methods. Ping me > if you are interested in this kind of setup, it's definitely not > something that could be put out for the public to use without a lot of > refinement, but you can probably assemble the pieces for less than $1000, excluding a machine to run the process. > > art > --- > 1. http://ink.ourdigitalworld.org/sample.jpg > 2. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-PK1n92dlzwaXVFVjNuM3hXc2c > > -----Original Message----- > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of > Matt Sherman > Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2017 9:43 AM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: [CODE4LIB] Good Tools for Microfilm Scanning > > Hi all, > > Does anyone on the list have much experience with microfilm scanning? > We have some old student newspapers and dissertations that we want to > get into a digital format and while I do have a lot of expreience with > photos, text, negatives, and large format media, I have not done > microfilm. As such I am wondering if there is a good tool or set of > tools to use when scanning microfilm? Either tools to scan with a > standard bed-scanner or some kind of microfilm scanner? Any suggestions would be appreciated. > > Matt Sherman >