Oregon State College Kerr Library staff member Rodney Waldron with a new portable microfilm reader, December 1958. Modern microfilm technology has been around since the mid 1930s. Microfilm has been a part of the Valley Library's holdings since at least 1939 and has been used as a storage medium by the University Archives since 1966. Waldron joined the OSC library staff in 1954, and served as Library Director from 1965-1984. [OSU Archives P82:74.]

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Chapter 2 Records Management — General Information

Reformatting

Microfilming

Microfilming is one of the oldest, most stable, and most useful tools available for storing information efficiently and effectively. Microfilming, when applied to the proper records for the proper reasons, can greatly benefit an office creating records. Among the potential benefits that can be achieved by microfilming the appropriate records are: security of information from loss, file order and content integrity, space savings, easy and inexpensive duplication and distribution, and speedy retrieval.

The University Archives will contract to microfilm non-permanent and selected permanent records that meet the above criteria. The current charge for filming is $.11 per image. Several commercial vendors are available in the area, particularly for large microfilming projects. All microfilmed records must conform to the standards outlined in OAR 166-025. Please contact the University Archives for additional information on planning and bidding microfilming projects.

For additional information on microfilming, see State Archives Bulletin 9.1, Introduction to Micrographics.

Digital Imaging

While microfilm is one of the oldest media for storing images of records and documents, digital imaging is one of the newest. Both microfilming and digital imaging are methods of reformatting records created in another format or media, usually paper. Electronic records are not part of this discussion as they are already in digital format.

As a process, digital imaging consists of converting a document from paper to a digitized electronic image stored either on magnetic media, optical media, or a hybrid magneto-optical media. In current digital imaging applications, the paper document is recorded much as a photograph is made. Individual light or dark portions of a document are recorded as a light or dark pixels or picture element, much as the light areas and dark areas of a scene are recorded as light or dark points on the photographic emulsion of camera film. The light and dark map is then stored on an optical disk as digital bit streams. The appearance of the document is turned into a digital form; the actual information elements within the document are not turned into digital character information. The process of scanning a document and translating its data elements into digital information involves the optical character recognition (OCR) process, a technology not addressed in this work.

Oregon Administrative Rule (OAR) 166-17 addresses the use of digital imaging systems by state agencies. Among the considerations in the OAR are:

• All digital imaging systems that store digitized public records with a retention period of ten years or more shall have system documentation on file with the agency records officer. If the life expectancy of the system is less than the retention period of the records it stores, system documentation shall also include a description of how access to digital images of records will be maintained. (166-17-0020)
• All documents in a digital imaging system shall be indexed and retrievable. Document image indexes shall be preserved as long as the document images in the system are maintained. (166-17-0040)
• Digital images shall be recorded and stored by means of a technology that does not allow their subsequent revision or replacement. (166-17-0050)
• Only optical disks with a 20 year life expectancy based on accelerated aging tests linked to specific disk locations may be used. (166-17-0050)
• Public records with a scheduled retention period of less than 100 years may be stored on optical disks. The original record may be disposed of following verification of acceptable optical image quality. Images stored on optical disks shall be copied onto new optical disks after no more than ten years. (166-17-0080)
• Public records with a scheduled retention period of 100 years or more may be stored on optical disk devices provided that the original records are retained in hard copy or on microfilm for the entire scheduled retention period. (166-17-0080)

See also State Archives Bulletin 8.1, Introduction to Electronic Document Imaging Systems and State Archives Bulletin 8.2, Digital Imaging Feasibility Study for additional information.

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