Digital Microfilm
The UK National Archives (or PRO if you’re old-skool like me) has announced a new project called Digital Microfilm. This involves scanning existing microfilms of original documents and making the whole reel available as a single (very big!) PDF file. These files are free to download. The aim is to eventually digitize all the microfilm records held by TNA/PRO and get rid of the microfilm readers at Kew. I think this a great idea as it’s a quick and easy way of making these records more widely available without the time and cost involved in indexing individual documents. Users can post their own indexes and transcripts on the Your Archives wiki. Although the quality of the scans obviously won’t be any better than the microfilm that they came from (and I know from experience that full colour high-resolution digital photos are much easier to work with) PDFs will still be more convenient than using a microfilm reader - no more holding a camera up to the screen to get a copy of the microfilm! I’m not sure whether this project will include records that have already been (badly) indexed and made available through DocumentsOnline and Ancestry, such as WWI service records and medal cards, but I assume records which aren’t currently available anywhere online will be the highest priority.
Comment by Annette — 11:36 pm, 15 October 2008 [permanent link to this comment]
The ability to create digital copies of microfilm was implemented by my office early in the summer. It has increased our response time to requestors, and decreased our paper and toner consumption. As we digitize the materials (currently only as the requests are received), we are databasing the materials for future use and reference. I loved that you brought this small (but huge) technological advance up in your blog!
Comment by Brett — 3:14 am, 16 October 2008 [permanent link to this comment]
That’s truly excellent news! But it reminds me of something I’ve wondered for a while. I’ve purchased digitised copies of TNA documents (I presume originals, not microfilms) before: why not make those copies available on the web to other users? After all, the cost of digitisation has been paid for (by me). Maybe it would be too piecemeal to bother modifying the online catalogue to incorporate images in this way, and they’d rather do it en masse when funds became available. But this project shows that they are taking big steps in the right direction.
Comment by Gavin Robinson — 7:24 am, 16 October 2008 [permanent link to this comment]
I got the impression from a survey that they sent out to DocumentsOnline users that they’re thinking of allowing users to upload their own digital images, but that’s not quite the same thing, and I don’t know if they’ll go through with it or if they’ll charge for access to those images. The survey also suggested that they’re thinking of moving to a subscription model instead of pay per download.
What would be really good is if they waived copyright and licence conditions on document images for non-commercial use. Currently the ban on third parties publishing images of PRO documents without getting special permission and paying a fee is holding back a lot of exciting things. If they did away with that I’d be quite happy to upload document images to my webspace or Flickr account, and it wouldn’t cost the government anything. The loss of revenue would only be hypothetical because given the choice between paying £35 or more per image per month and not publishing, obviously I’m not going to publish.