Is hard to believe that so many companies still use microfiche cards for archiving. In our scanning company we transfer thousands of microfiche to digital formats all the time. But like with other document systems, microfiche archival is still widely used. Is good to know that a scanning company can transfer your microfiche to pdf, jpeg, or tiff images, and this is not very expensive if you find the right scanning company. We have helped hundred of companies and individuals that decided to transfer their archived data.

The scanning company yous select to scan your microfiche cards will help you choose from the many options available for you digital scanning system. We help out customers from the very early stages of their microfiche conversion project. We believe that planning is extremely valuable for the scanning company and for the customer. Therefore, we take the time to test and inform customers at the very early stages. For example, our scanning company provides free test scanning for every project. This process gives a customer good feedback and assures that the communication good between the customer and the scanning company.

Experience and reliability are also good qualification of an efficient scanning company. You want to feel the work is guaranteed. Make sure that you can speak to your scanning company representative and the project manager. When you have a question or concern, getting quick response from your scanning company is essential. In addition, the scanning company should commit to future services to further update your imaging system.

Microfiche cards can be very time consuming to work with. That is one reason I recommend records scanning. Records scanning, in general, will convert your microfiche cards into a digital storage and retrieval system. Records scanning can create PDF or Jpeg files. These types of digital files are commonly used in the industry and can be of great value to end users. The time that is required to operate a microfiche archival system is considerable in the present time. Before Records scanning, options were limited and microfiche systems were acceptable everywhere. Today, records scanning allows systems to be much more reliable and efficient.

Taking the time to investigate and become knowledgeable in this area is also easy. You can contact a records scanning expert for all kinds of information, without any commitment. A good records scanning service company can also do testing for free. You should be able to get samples of your microfiche images for free. This a very important part of any records scanning project and can answer many question for you. You should like to see what the end product will look like and make sure that it will serve its purpose correctly, before you start the real records scanning production run.

The fact is, with the technology available today, you should not have to used microfiche cards as your only available choice. Records scanning has been the answer to thousands of organizations and individuals with microfiche cards. The efforts needed from your side are very small but the gains can be significant. Let the exerts at records scanning do the the work for you.

Computer Output Microfilm is a system that converts stored data directly to microfilm or microfiche. I know around ten people who used to sell Bell & Howell Computer Output Microfilm systems as far back as the 1960s to the 1980s. It almost seems to be a prerequisite for sales people in the micrographics industry from that era.

Computer Output Microfilm systems are still used today, mostly by organizations who need to store payroll, accounting, insurance, inventory, or employee data. Yet because most of these organizations have outputted the Computer Output Microfilm to microfiche, they have to manually search for a record and use a reader printer to save out a particular file.

A more feasible option is to convert Computer Output Microfilm to digital image via Generation Imaging’s microfiche scanning services. Generation Imaging specializes in microfiche to PDF, TIFF, or JPEG conversions.

Using high quality/high production microfiche scanners, we convert the COM microfiche to digital. Generation Imaging provides this COM fiche scanning service to end users as well as other service bureau’s. Clients can choose from Adobe PDF format, Group 4 TIFF (tagged image file format), or greyscale JPEGs. PDFs and TIFFs can be wrapped in a multi-page file. Generation Imaging offers an optional OCR (optical character recognition) image processing and other indexing services (by folder or filename).

The end result of this entire process is a digital image which you could easily search the file containing records by name, account number, date, and/or social security number. Obviously this saves time and efficiency.

Converting analog media to digital image (i.e. microfiche scanning) has many benefits. Here are three obvious microfiche scanning benefits:

Immediate retrieval of your documents on your computer. I mean, seriously, you can have a little contest with your co-worker to see who can bring up a fiche document the fastest; you just use your mouse and she has to go digging through filing cabinets and use a microfiche viewer/reader. Microfiche scanning allows this quick retrieval.
No more losing fiche – No longer will you be worried about your documents getting lost due to a misplaced fiche or small frame falling off. As someone who has working with microfiche for three decades I can attest to how one must pay close attention to where one leaves a microfiche card. With microfiche scanning, all of the images will be saved and you can make unlimited backups and copies, so you will never lose a card again.
Quick response to resolving issues. Imagine if you work at an insurance company or school and someone is requesting their records. In some cases your organization has been forced to give a 5-day turnaround time because someone has to find the fiche and use an old, faulty reader printer to print out on paper or create an image. With microfiche scanning all you would have to do is…use your mouse and keyboard to type the fiche ID or use your eyes to find a folder. Which method is more efficient?

OLD School is not FAST

If you need to Digitize Negatives from microfiche cards, there are options available for you. One good way to digitize negative is to used a microfiche to digital scanner. This scanner will digitize negatives from many different types of formats. You can then store the resulting images as jpegs, tiffs, pdfs right on your computer.

To digitize negatives from strips of old film, or from microfilm rolls, you basically follow the same process, but the microfilm scanner is different. To digitize negatives from film strips that roll in 100 foot rolls, the conversion is more automated than from short strips. Log rolls are threaded through a microfilm scanners that then feed the microfilm on a continuous flow. But to digitize negatives from very short strips, each strip requires some one to load the negative on to the microfilm scanner one by one.

I like to digitize negatives from small strips with a process that allows adjustments for variations of quality. This process allows is very handy to digitize negatives that have variations of contrast. You should not digitize negatives with one standard setup because this can lead to loss of quality in the resulting image. When adjustments are needed, you want to have the opportunity to make necessary equipment adjustments.

Many Historical and Genealogical records are stored on microfiche cards. This is available to someone interested in the information for private and or historical uses. In many libraries and other location around the country, they have microfiche readers to help you find what you need. Converting the Microfiche to Digital allows this process to be much easier. Microfiche to digital conversion is the process of scanning the microfiche with high tech equipment, and creating an image that is stored on computers. Microfiche to Digital conversion can make a big difference to gemological researchers that are looking for specific information contained within a large collection of data.

A good way to compare these processes is to consider the differences between the two formats and what can be accomplished with each. Traditional microfiche readers rely on you to manually locate the film, insert it into the reader, then finding the general area where your data may be, and then hunting for names as you would find a word in a book. A Microfiche to Digital conversion creates digital images of the entire collection. All the data is then stored in a computer and can be viewed as many time as you like. The scanning of Microfiche to Digital technology has been available for a few years and is the logical means for optimization. Microfiche readers and printers where great years ago, but the time it takes to find information is greatly reduced thanks to a Microfiche to Digital conversion process.

There is even better news. After the Microfiche to Digital process is complete, we can perform an OCR or, Optical Character Recognition, to the files. By doing this, all files that were converted from Microfiche to Digital, can be data searched by simply typing a name in the computer. Imaging you are looking for persons name and you don’t know where it is within thousands of records. The value of a Microfiche to Digital conversion is realized when you are able to type in the name and have the computer bring up the page and point to the location where the name is found.

Digitizing genealogical records- it is easier now than in the past to find information about your ancestors. Many organizations are collecting genealogical information for research reasons. In spite of this, finding your family history may not be as easy as you would like. Original certificates of marriage, divorce, birth, death and other historical records, may be found in their original paper format. Generation Imaging are experts at converting historical records from microfiche archives, microfilm archives, or original paper form, to a digital format, such as PDF, TIFF, or JPEG.

There has always been an interest in people looking their ancestry information. Years ago we could only get genealogical information that had been passed down from family members. Many people have spend countless number of hours gathering information to build their own family tree. But many times this information was very limited in-spite of their efforts.

Companies that offer genealogical records to individuals that are looking for family history are looking for ways to provide more information for you. If you have records on microfilm or microfiche cards, and you need to convert these archival records to a digital format, contact Generation Imaging. We also scan paper documents and aperture cards. In addition, we can perform OCR and create searchable PDF files. This can allow individual to look up names, dates and other information. We can convert all types of hard copy records to digital format and help you build a digital automated system. Using this method, Genealogical Research Institutions are becoming more efficient than years ago.

We recently converted old newspaper records from 35mm microfilm to digital format for an out of state genealogical records institution. In this particular case, the microfilm had information that dated back about 100 years. Before the conversion took place, people had a very difficult time finding valuable information that was stored in the microfilm. It is easy to assume that many people got frustrated and did not find all they were looking for. We were successful at digitizing and creating searchable PDF files that can now be easily search. In an automated system, records can be found by typing a name into a field and the system locates all the records that have that name . This automated process is usually more efficient at locating records when compared to a person searching through thousands of documents. In addition, the time savings when using an automated system is huge. This time savings and efficiency may turn into a win win situation for everyone.

Contacting us for your microfilm or document conversion needs is easy.  We are equipped to quickly and efficiently convert your genealogical records for you. Old documents that are kept on microfiche or microfilm, or are in paper format, require an expert to carefully and safely digitize the information. We use the latest technology to scan records. We have converted 35mm microfilm, 16mm microfilm and other types of documents for many years.

If you have millions of vital records that need to be digitized, or if you just have a couple of rolls of microfilm or a few microfiche cards, we can help you decide the best way to digitize the images, and we can provide you with the best options for you historical records.