Exposed! Fifty Years of Preservation Microfilming

Alison Bullock,
Research and Information Services
  In 1953, Dr. W. Kaye Lamb observed that: "microfilming has now almost entirely replaced transcribing by hand in the copying programme of the Public Archives." ¹ Almost 50 years later, digital imagery is supplanting microfilm as a means of distributing copies of original material; however, microfilm remains the medium of choice for preserving documents for long-term access. Microfilming was a key activity of the Canadian Bibliographic Centre and forms the basis of the National Library's current microfilming program.

The preservation microfilming program started in 1950 with Marie Tremaine's Bibliography of Canadian Imprints, 1751-1800 and a donation of $1 200 from the Americana Corporation. By the time filming ended in 1954, 782 of the 1 204 rare pamphlets and books listed in the bibliography had been captured on film. Dr. Lamb undertook much of the work himself, employing a portable Recordak E camera borrowed from the Library of Congress. The Report of the National Librarian for 1955 records the "difficult and exacting task of editing the master film" and mentions "hundreds of splices". Hundreds of splices in an archival master is far more than the six allowed by today's standards, but happily, the time-consuming task of film editing has now all but disappeared thanks to strict guidelines for the preparation of the original material.
 

Microfilming Snapshots 1950-56 Tremaine Bibliography 1965- Canadian Theses on Microform 1974-7? Peel Bibliography late 1970s Ethnic Serials 1978 Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproduction established 1980s Decentralized Program for Canadian Newspapers 1990-93 Canadian Cooperative Preservation Project developed Guidelines for Preservation Microfilming in Canadian Libraries 1993- City Directories 1999- Glenn Gould Archive

Following the success of the Tremaine project, the National Library (NL) again turned to a bibliography to guide selection of items to be microfilmed. The "Peel Bibliography Project" ² started in October 1974 and was sponsored by the NL and the Devonian Group of Charitable Foundations. Projects to film ethnic newspapers and periodicals soon followed.

By 1978, however, an independent, non-profit organization, the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproduction (CIHM), had taken on responsibility for identifying, locating and preserving on microfiche pre-1900 Canadiana. With the advent of the CIHM, the National Library's role shifted from one where it filmed material to one where it supported preservation microfilming in other institutions by lending its collections, sponsoring projects, encouraging cooperative ventures and storing microform masters produced by other Canadian libraries and archives.

The Canadian Cooperative Preservation Project, established in the 1990s and funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, was one such cooperative venture. Five Canadian university libraries, plus the National Library, developed a national preservation program in which microfilming was a key component. The collaboration resulted in Guidelines for Preservation Microfilming in Canadian Libraries and the establishment of a Canadian Register of Microform Masters. In 1993, using these new standards, the National Library started to microfilm Canadian city directories; in 1999 a second project, to film the NL's Glenn Gould archival holdings, was added.

A technician prepares material for filming by selecting best copies, arranging loans and compiling target ³ sets. Once these steps are completed, the National Archives produces the film. The microfilms produced are those required for the Library's own collection and loan purposes only; however, the Library lends some print masters for copying.

Although the National Library continues to use microfilm as a means of preserving and providing access to its rare or fragile collections, many libraries are choosing to digitize their collections instead. In 1951, it was recognized that "the service that microfilm copies can render to scholars is immense, owing to the ease with which they can be duplicated, and thereby made available anywhere in the country." ⁴ In 2000, the access possibilities offered by digitization are even more immense. The ability to endlessly copy without diminishing quality and to deliver copies electronically to multiple desktops, and the researcher's ability to use that copy without damaging it and to produce print copies at will, has increased pressure to switch from microform to digital reproduction. Despite the obvious advantages, digitization has not replaced preservation microfilming, largely because of concerns about the longevity of digital images. A dual microfilm-scan approach might ultimately serve both short-term access and long-term preservation and access goals.

Fifty years after the Canadian Bibliographic Centre began to film items in the Tremaine bibliography, the National Library continues to be concerned with the issue of bibliographic control and the question of how to provide more detailed holdings information in the Canadian Register of Microform Masters. No doubt bibliographic control will also play a key role in the next 50 years, as we determine how to document digital images to render them accessible to future generations.

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Notes:

¹ Lamb, W. Kaye. "A-Filming We Shall Go!" Bulletin of the Canadian Library Association, vol. 10, no. 2, August 1953, p. 66.

² "Peel Bibliography" refers to Bruce Peel's Bibliography of the Prairie Provinces. 2nd edition. University of Toronto Press, 1973.

³ Targets contain information about the item (title, author, date, missing pages, etc.) and the process used to film it.

⁴ Progress Report and Recommendations prepared by the National Library Advisory Committee and presented to the Hon. F. Gordon Bradley, Secretary of State of Canada (Ottawa, Nov. 1951).