Dinosaurs in a Jetson world: A dozen ways to revitalize your microforms collection

Swimming with the Fiches: Reviving the International Aerospace Abstracts Collection to Make It Discoverable and Accessible to Researchers

“…4 Almost all library-held microform collections are under-or uncataloged, resulting in a lack of understanding of the value these collections bring to the library. 5 Since the first use of microforms, user perceptions of them have been relatively poor. This has been further compounded by the prevalence of electronic formats and the rise of web search engines.…”

“…17 Despite these efforts, libraries are prevented from fully cataloging microform collections because of several factors, including workload, complexity, and lack of staff, resources, and institutional commitment. 18 The literature suggests that progress has been made on creating at least minimal bibliographic records for microforms. Duffy and Weisbrod wrote that the most common way that microform collections are cataloged is with a single record for the entire set, though this perpetuates the need for users to rely on print indexes and guides to locate individual titles.…”

The Use of Microforms in New Zealand Public Tertiary Institutions

“…Of the final comments the third represent the perennial problem of microformsuser acceptance to the machinery. Resistance to bulky reader units are constantly mentioned in the literature as a major obstacle to user acceptance of the medium (Cheney, 2010). Regardless of the value of the content, the container proves too much of a barrier.…”