Microfilm Scanner

Come meet my new friend, and the library's newest tool: a brand-new, all digital microfilm reader.

(Pictured is Sheila, our tech guru, and Emily, one of our staff members, who are making prints of an obituary from the 1800s for a patron.)

What's so exciting about a piece of technology?

Well it just opened up the use of 200 years of newspaper archives that have been lingering out of touch since our old machine stopped working, plus anything else we can borrow on microfilm from any other library in the world.

Compared to its predecessor, a huge, weighty plastic and metal contraption we nicknamed "the moose," this new unit is not only sleek and tiny, it gives us crystal-clear, high resolution images, makes text very easy to read on the screen, and can scan color slides if patrons request it.

Now on my to-do list: make pdfs of important news documents for our files.