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Bulletin of the American Library Association

    Publishing Information

    Microphotography for Smaller Libraries
    HERMAN H. FUSSLER
    Department of Photographic Reproduction, University of Chicago

  1. IN APPLYING microphotography to smaller libraries, the question of cost immediately arises, for its use there must be accomplished with low initial outlay and maintenance. Hence a demonstration of microphotographic equipment with these needs in mind was scheduled for the Midwinter Conference, in Chicago, December 28 to 30.

  2. Dr. M. Llewellyn Raney, chairman of the A. L. A. Committee on Photographic Reproduction of Library Materials, opened the session by introducing the Society for Visual Education and its A. L. A. filmstrip, Books for Everybody, shown with the society's wall projector.

  3. That microphotography will shortly be claiming general attention, and that books of many kinds will be produced on film, are certainties in Dr. Raney's opinion. A dozen representative daily newspapers are already being so issued month by month, and the custom will spread steadily, he believes. The cost of films will then be no more than the old subscription plus binding, and the saving in storage will be enormous. This concerns every library, for one of its prime duties is to preserve the local press and local records.

    EXPERTMENTS UNDER WAY

  4. Experiments in filming an encyclopedia, a dictionary, and a telephone directory are under way, and other books should follow quickly, once a typewriter giving straight margins comes to success. Classics may then be produced at ten cents a copy and a scholar remain expert anywhere. A variant from film rolls, included in the demonstration, was a sample of Dr. L. Bendikson's work, consisting of an entire book reproduced by means of 35 mm. strips of paper printed by contact from original 35 mm. film. These are read beneath a binocular microscope. Here is a way to make a text accessible by interlibrary loan and spare the precious original. The medium is safe and lasting, it was pointed out, good reading devices are now on the market, and marvelous cameras and automatic processing units are here.

  5. In microphotography the investment in equipment is governed by the nature of the material to be reproduced, and by the manner and nature of the reproduction. If $50 is invested, the results may be worth that amount, but in variety, quality, and quantity, they will, of course, not be what a laboratory costing $5,000 or more can produce. It is quite possible, however, that in a given situation the first amount is adequate or even excessive. This sum is mentioned because it is a possible minimum outlay. It assumes an Argus ($2.50 plus 90 cents for supplementary lens) or secondhand camera; a home-rigged copying stand; a $6.75 developing tank for daylight processing except loading; and a hand viewer ($1.50 up) or a semi-home rigged projector or reading machine, perhaps the Argus in an adaptation ($25 on); and a few accessories such as bottles, a safelight, a balance, and a graduate.

  6. A library will not long remain satisfied with this equipment, however. The Argus will take copies, but the page size is quite limited, the lens will lack accurate correction, the shutter may not last long, and the capacity is only 36 exposures. This may be a start, but it should lead to equipment on a business-like scale. Need will soon be felt for the Photorecord of the Folmer Graflex Corporation--the first camera on the market in this country specifically designed for scholarly microphotography. It has a good lens, a capacity for one hundred feet of film instead of five, as in the Argus or Leica, and a shutter that should survive the strain of continuous exposures for a long time.

  7. With this increased length of film, some other method of processing becomes necessary. The film may be wound on racks and immersed in tanks, or, better yet, wound on flat, metal spirals, called Stuntman reels. A fifty-foot capacity reel, with three nesting tanks, lists at $30; a hundred-foot reel, with three proportionately sized tanks, at $50. With this method must go a dark room having electrical outlets, water, and dust-free ventilation.

  8. Next, multiple copies may be wanted--on film made with a printer costing $18 to $100 or over, or on paper with an enlarger costing from $15 to $200. Other accessories follow suit, to expedite and improve the quality of the work--safelights, light meter, scales and balances, splicer, rewinder, drying reels, and so on.

  9. As the quantity of film grows, reading methods will have to improve over the earlier improvisation or hand viewer, it was emphasized. Films will be coming into the library from outside sources and some may be in high reductions, similar to current recordings of newspapers. Here the reading machine may be the Eastman Recordak Library Projector, admirably suited to columnar, high reduction material, but thus far unsuited to certain placements of text on film and to low reductions. The Optigraphs of the International Filmbook Corporation may seem more suitable. They are designed for universality, but exhaustive tests as to their qualities must yet be made, although preliminary indications point to success. There may soon be available a new model from Bausch and Lomb and another from the Society for Visual Education.

  10. Small libraries interested in books on films are advised to start slowly and work gradually in buying photographic equipment. If they invest on the very cheapest scale, they should do so only for experience in a minor temporary job. They will then be ready to advance with proper equipment instead of makeshifts when the longer need is clearly discerned.