After reading some of the postings regarding microcards and knowing CRL was
recently involved with some attempt at solving the problem, I asked the
person at CRL who was involved with this attempt.  Linda Naru, Director of
Member Services for CRL, was kind enough to provide me with a report she
sent to the ALA ILL Committee.  She also noted that a meeting of the
ALCTS/PARS Micropublishing Discussion Group will be discussing this.

> Improving access to materials in micro-opaque format.
>
>CRL has a vast collection of titles in microcard and microprint format.
>This includes sets that are frequently requested, such as Early American
>imprints; early shipments of the set  Nineteenth century drama; British
>sessional papers; early groups of the French, German and Spanish drama
>series.  As micro-opaque readers become rarer and reader/printers become
>almost extinct, researchers find this format more irksome than useful.
>
>One option for improving access to materials in micro-opaque format is to
>replace whatever sets now are available in microfiche. Several sets that
>CRL has have been reissued in microfiche; however, staff calculated
>replacement costs to be approximately $420,000, making this is an
>alternative the CRL membership would not accept.  Another option is to add
>the capability of making copies from micro-opaques as items are requested
>through interlibrary loan.
>
>CRL now has a Readex Model 7 micro-opaque reader in its reading room, but
>this is not a reader/printer.  Since spring 1996, CRL has been researching
>equipment that would enable it to supply copies (or electronic output) from
>its micro-opaque collection.
>
>CRL staff has worked with a couple of vendors who market a product made by
>ScreenScan that mounts a scanner on the display of microform reader
>equipment and outputs a copy of the screen display to a laser printer, fax
>machine, or electronic file.  The vendors see their primary market in
>microfilm and microfiche readers, but agreed to adapt the product for the
>micro-opaque viewer.  Using CRL's Model 7, they built a scanner that
>mounted on the display screen, scanned the image, and printed a copy of the
>screen image on a laser printer.  Unfortunately, CRL's Model 7 does not
>project a sharp enough image to make a the scan legible, therefore the copy
>was illegible (this results from the performance of the Model 7, not the
>ScreenScan equipment).
>
>CRL's experience with the scanner product seemed promising; however, now we
>need to have a micro-opaque reader that produces a legible screen image.
>
>ScreenScan's products range from a lower-end scanner-printer (model 200) to
>a more sophisticated computer-aided system that enables the user to
>manipulate and enhance the screen image.  Prices are in the $5,000-$10,000
>range.

*****************************************
*****************************************
Mary Wilke
Head of Acquisitions
Center for Research Libraries
6050 S. Kenwood Ave
Chicago, IL 60637-2804
Tel: (773) 955-4545 ext. 351
Fax: (773) 955-4339
<wilke@CRLMAIL.UCHICAGO.EDU>