What is Microfilming

Microfilming consists of photographically reducing images to a very small size. An early application was the photographing of bank cheques in the 1920s; now the technique is widely used to store information that would otherwise require too much space. For example, newspapers and magazines are photographed on roll film and can be displayed on desk-top projectors equipped with systems that permit the desired pages to be found quickly. Another application is the microfiche, a piece of 10 by 15 cm (4 by 6 in) film on which up to 70 frames, each corresponding to one page of text, can be stored. Each frame can be viewed individually on a desk-top projector. This system makes possible the storage of the entire catalogue of a library on a relatively small number of microfiches.

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