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
>