Microforms obsolete?

Despite the fact that the death knell of microforms has been repeatedly sounded in the library press for the past 10 years, I do not see the format going away anytime soon. A lot of libraries have invested too much money in the format for it to just disappear overnight.

I keep hearing that all of the microforms should be digitized: both from patrons and from the library world. However, there are issues blocking that from happening anytime soon: copyright, time (it will take a lot of time to digitize all of the microforms in existence), money to finance it, server issues, then who can get access and for what cost and et cetera.

We did a weeding project this summer in which we recycled the fiche and film that we now have electronic access to. I imagine that other libraries are working on similar projects.


I do not mind microforms -- they are a good way to compress a lot of information into a small area. But electronic access has added indexing and searching that is so much more accessible than microforms ever could be. The end of microforms may not have come but the time is drawing near.

At some point the ability to access the microform format might become so burdensome that a tipping point will be reached and digitization will be forced to occur. It is becoming increasingly difficult to get parts for microform readers and increasingly expensive to maintain them as the switch to electronic access continues to accelerate.

Top 5 annoyances for serials for 2009

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... Oops. Wrong season. Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, publishers are not sweet...

5) Changing formats and making the new one useless to libraries. (2 examples come to mind -- one has gone to pdf editions that will be emailed to the subscribers and the other is one that has gone to biweekly digital "updates" that require a single username and password)

4) Changing publication schedules from a regular one to an irregular one (This one is a newspaper that went from daily to "occassional" with no set pattern!)

3) One publisher selling all of its journals and content to another publisher and making the old content near to impossible to get to during the "transfer."

2) Size changes for no apparent reason and improvement in quality

But the number 1 annoyance for 2009 serials is... (drum roll...)

1) Publishers or editors that do not understand the REASON for Roman Numerals was for a "shorthand" and a "standardized" way of counting. Hence, XXXXVI does not exist. 3 X's in a row is the maximum. Weird versions of a number are also annoying -- hence "XLX" is mere nonsense. Yes, it does equal out to "50" if you do the math, but there is a REASON that "L" was put into the system!

I'm thinking Psalms are too complex a literary form for this publishing group. Maybe I can come up with a Limerick for March.

Magazine makeovers and new editors

Anytime I get a letter from a publication that says something about a new editor or a new direction, I cringe. I cringe because I know what will be next -- a makeover, a name change, a format change, a new publisher, a size change and occassionally spin off titles with new issns.

It seems to be the season for makeovers. A couple of our journals have converted to online-only this year. A couple of our journals have changed sizes in the MIDDLE of the volume, which is a problem for binding purposes. An entire collection of our journals was purchased from one publisher to another and is changing where they are going to be available online. And then there is the publisher that has issued an oversized magazine since it was created and just this week decided to change sizes, its layout and went from staples to perfect binding...

I just wonder, at times like this, if the publishers have ever heard the phrase "if it ain't broken, don't fix it?"

Serials in other formats

Serials are a bit of a challenge when presented in formats other than print. Space issues demand that other formats exist. But there are issues that arise.

• Databases don't always include graphics or tables. Also, due to the Tasini case, some freelance work is not included in proprietary databases (though that may change due to the recent ruling in the Georgia case on e-reserves). Additionally, product ads, classified ads and stock tickers are often not included. These exclusions make it a challenge for patrons that are looking for those items and access is not available.


• Microforms are actually a great format, but some in the library community keep trying to sound the death knell of these formats because of digitization. I've been in serials for 8 years and we just bought yet another microform reading machine and so I am skeptical about the impending obsolescence of this material type. The machine we bought will allow editing and saving as .pdf files and that has come in handy.


• Electronic access to publisher sites through urls are problematic and depend on a whole host of issues in order to make sure that access is kept available and consistent.

I know that "print" serials will disappear, but access to the other formats of serials will also become obsolete and we will still need ways to utilize those "older" formats and access the same information contained there. Not to sound like a troglodyte, but it is so much easier to "access" information if you can go to the shelf, pull down the volume and open it to the correct page.