I do a fair amount of research in the microfilm section of the library. This has generally meant loading up the reel on their antiquated microfilm readers and scrolling through the film with a hand crank (their automated readers only have two speeds — blistering fast and dog slow — which I find unhelpful). Then, when I found something I wanted to print off, I rewound the reel and take it over to one of their microfilm reader/printers and loaded it up again. These are pretty nice, but there are only two of them, so they don’t want you hogging them if you’re not printing anything. Copies are 25¢.

But not anymore!

The Peoria Public Library has gotten six new microfilm reader/printers, and they are sweet! They print on plain paper instead of thermal paper, so the copy prices have dropped to 10¢ per page — but the even better news is that you don’t have to print them at all. Library director Ed Szynaka explains:
“They are all very much automated and can transfer images on to disk and storage sticks with great ease.”

Yep, we can now save a digital image of the microfilm! And, with OCR software, this will save me no small amount of typing, assuming the original image is good. And speaking of keeping the image looking good, Szynaka also told me that “the lens does not touch the microfilm thereby dramatically reducing scratching of the film.”

Kudos to the library for this fantastic upgrade!