Academic microfilm access and personal-use copies
December 6, 2014 3:55 PM Subscribe
What are the guidelines, etiquette, and available technical mechanisms for copying microfilm records for offsite use, generally speaking?
I have located a microfilm collection of records I would like to familiarize myself with. The reels were shot in the 1980s from original holdings in place at UVa. They do not appear to be available in any form in a digitized version, although the finding guide has been digitized multiple times.
My previous exposure to using microfilm was in the 1980s and then the practice was generally to locate a set of citations you thought you might need and print the records. The limitations of time and technology meant it was not practical to generate a whole copy of a reel for home use.
I do not yet know if the local repository has a digitization machine in place for researchers to make citation copies. In an ideal universe, I would copy the entirety of this specific set of records for my offsite perusal rather than be tied to physical access in the library.
This strikes me as almost certainly a no-no, but what do I know? My suspicion is that were I faculty or an enrolled graduate student this would be permitted if technically feasible but would be frowned upon and possibly prevented for other users.
I am currently unaffiliated with the holding institution but have previously jumped the hoops need to gain library access and am confident about my ability to do so again.
I have located a microfilm collection of records I would like to familiarize myself with. The reels were shot in the 1980s from original holdings in place at UVa. They do not appear to be available in any form in a digitized version, although the finding guide has been digitized multiple times.
My previous exposure to using microfilm was in the 1980s and then the practice was generally to locate a set of citations you thought you might need and print the records. The limitations of time and technology meant it was not practical to generate a whole copy of a reel for home use.
I do not yet know if the local repository has a digitization machine in place for researchers to make citation copies. In an ideal universe, I would copy the entirety of this specific set of records for my offsite perusal rather than be tied to physical access in the library.
This strikes me as almost certainly a no-no, but what do I know? My suspicion is that were I faculty or an enrolled graduate student this would be permitted if technically feasible but would be frowned upon and possibly prevented for other users.
I am currently unaffiliated with the holding institution but have previously jumped the hoops need to gain library access and am confident about my ability to do so again.
Yeah, I think you have to ask them. It's not impossible that you'd be allowed to digitize all of this content (that technology does exist, and I am comfortable assuming that UVa's library or special collections would have it). It would depend on what it is, how much it is (or what percentage of some whole it is), whether it's sensitive info, what you're going to do with it, etc. They might even have some kind of permissions process, wherein your particular project is vetted.
posted by unknowncommand at 5:36 PM on December 6, 2014
posted by unknowncommand at 5:36 PM on December 6, 2014
Sorry, you're talking about a local repository that holds microfilm scanned from content at UVa? In that case, I have no idea if they'd have the scanners. And it would potentially depend on how many holding libraries there are, as jetlagaddict says.
posted by unknowncommand at 5:42 PM on December 6, 2014
posted by unknowncommand at 5:42 PM on December 6, 2014
Just about every library that offered microforms during that time obtained them from University Microfilms International of Ann Arbor (not affiliated with the University of Michigan), now called Proquest. They may be able to offer some help or direction.
Have you done a search at Archive.org?
posted by megatherium at 4:09 AM on December 7, 2014
Have you done a search at Archive.org?
posted by megatherium at 4:09 AM on December 7, 2014
Just speaking to the technical aspect of this: I've been a librarian at two major university libraries and neither of them have owned equipment to digitize microfilm. We always send it out to vendors. So it's likely what you're asking won't even be possible with the equipment your library has on hand.
posted by MsMolly at 10:21 AM on December 7, 2014
posted by MsMolly at 10:21 AM on December 7, 2014
Response by poster: So, to summarize: local institutional policy governs local access, digitization equipment is not universally available, and institutional policy regarding duplication may depend on record content.
To answer some of your questions, the original materials are correspondence and other records generated roughly from 1700-1870, so the source material is clearly outside copyright. However, the microfilm is certainly governed by copyright (searching for it produces the copyright notice, in fact).
Archive.org does not have the material, since it is not material that has ever been published in a bound form.
UVa does publish the physical collection's index online but the materials are not available there digitally.
In researching institutional policy on microfilm access, a subset of holding institutions do state that they have digitization available to microfilm users on a one-off basis, but it is not universal and I haven't drilled down at UW to see if they have it there.
There are multiple institutions that hold the microfilm. WorldCat shows six holding institutions within 500 miles of Seattle, for example.
I do not recall offhand how many frames I am describing. I do know it's roughly an entire reel. I assume, given the date range, the number of page images is quite substantial.
posted by mwhybark at 10:50 AM on December 7, 2014
To answer some of your questions, the original materials are correspondence and other records generated roughly from 1700-1870, so the source material is clearly outside copyright. However, the microfilm is certainly governed by copyright (searching for it produces the copyright notice, in fact).
Archive.org does not have the material, since it is not material that has ever been published in a bound form.
UVa does publish the physical collection's index online but the materials are not available there digitally.
In researching institutional policy on microfilm access, a subset of holding institutions do state that they have digitization available to microfilm users on a one-off basis, but it is not universal and I haven't drilled down at UW to see if they have it there.
There are multiple institutions that hold the microfilm. WorldCat shows six holding institutions within 500 miles of Seattle, for example.
I do not recall offhand how many frames I am describing. I do know it's roughly an entire reel. I assume, given the date range, the number of page images is quite substantial.
posted by mwhybark at 10:50 AM on December 7, 2014
Best answer: Are the reels in the open stacks or in special collections? At the academic library where I work patrons are free to come in and make PDF scans of the microfilm reels in the open stacks and save them to a USB stick. We have people (not affiliated with the university) who come in and spend 8 hour days scanning the materials. Would that be the best use of your time? I have no idea, but people do it.
posted by ephemerista at 12:22 PM on December 7, 2014
posted by ephemerista at 12:22 PM on December 7, 2014
Best answer: Yeah, I think your best bet is to email the reference staff or circulation staff at those libraries to see what their access policies are, and whether they have a ScanPro or another scanner open to public use. Having a whole reel scanned to PDF through ILL is possibly unlikely, but microfilm policies and costs really vary. It's just going to vary from library to library what their policies are and what scanners they have available (though I would be surprised if none of them had a ScanPro or equivalent-- maybe they are more common in some areas than others?)
posted by jetlagaddict at 12:38 PM on December 7, 2014
posted by jetlagaddict at 12:38 PM on December 7, 2014
Response by poster: At the academic library where I work patrons are free to come in and make PDF scans of the microfilm reels in the open stacks and save them to a USB stick.
That's encouraging, and tells me that it's within normal collections management practice to permit such activity.
BUT
I went and looked in detail at the publication info at Proquest. It's 55 reels! So I rather imagine I might be asking for some lovely carpal were I to try to grab the whole thing. On the other hand, if it looks like I were actually be able to do it in 40 hours or so, I might just try.
posted by mwhybark at 4:34 PM on December 7, 2014
That's encouraging, and tells me that it's within normal collections management practice to permit such activity.
BUT
I went and looked in detail at the publication info at Proquest. It's 55 reels! So I rather imagine I might be asking for some lovely carpal were I to try to grab the whole thing. On the other hand, if it looks like I were actually be able to do it in 40 hours or so, I might just try.
posted by mwhybark at 4:34 PM on December 7, 2014
Response by poster: I just realized that it appears Proquest may already have the records digitized, as the collection appears in their History Vault title list. So the next step for me would be figuring out how to become a qualified user there for that collection, I think.
posted by mwhybark at 1:15 AM on December 8, 2014
posted by mwhybark at 1:15 AM on December 8, 2014
In my experience ProQuest is not going to let an individual user have access to their databases. However, you can generally access any database an institution subscribes to if you are physically in the library on a computer. You will have to find out if the library has purchased the History Vault module with the collection you need and if they let non-affiliated users have computer and/or wifi access. If I were you I would look to see which module my collection is in based on this title list. Then I would search worldcat for "history vault" + module. This won't catch every library because not everyone links to these records, but you might get lucky. Would you mind saying what collection are you looking for?
posted by ephemerista at 6:40 AM on December 9, 2014
posted by ephemerista at 6:40 AM on December 9, 2014
Best answer: The collection is very definitely digitized and available in ProQuest, yay.
No geo-local access to the particular module via UW or Seattle Public Library, boo.
However, a close family member has institutional access which is remote-able, we just need to sort through the ethics or to see if I can obtain my own access under the institution's policies. The research interest is specifically familial so I think it may be legit for me to act as his proxy, but I want to be sure we have our ducks in a row.
posted by mwhybark at 12:53 PM on December 9, 2014
No geo-local access to the particular module via UW or Seattle Public Library, boo.
However, a close family member has institutional access which is remote-able, we just need to sort through the ethics or to see if I can obtain my own access under the institution's policies. The research interest is specifically familial so I think it may be legit for me to act as his proxy, but I want to be sure we have our ducks in a row.
posted by mwhybark at 12:53 PM on December 9, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jetlagaddict at 5:30 PM on December 6, 2014