Microform Collection Guide

Walter Library has over 350,000 documents in 18 cabinets that have been reproduced as microfilm or microfiche for high-efficiency storage.  Most of these documents are published by the U.S. Government and sent to us as a regional holder of scientific and technical government information.  They can be viewed and scanned using the scanner located on the north wall of the foundation level (Level F) of Walter Library.

Many of the documents in our collection have been scanned and placed online, and many more are searchable (abstract/citation only) in various report databases.  See Finding Reports Online.  For convenience, you will find a list of the primary online databases below.

Popular and Highly Used Resources

Scanning Microforms

Walter Library has a combined microform reader and scanner next to the microform collection on Level F.  With the scanner, you can scan one page at a time and combine the scans into one PDF.

Tips:

  • Plan enough time. Scanning microforms can be a time-consuming process.
  • Keep your PDFs small. If you plan to email the PDF, send only 3-5 pages at a time. If you plan to save the PDF to a flash drive, save only 15 pages at a time. The program gets a little bogged down beyond those limits.
  • Before you start scanning, check to be sure that the microform is not already online.
  • You will find a complete user guide next to the scanner.
Last Updated: Jul 23, 2024 2:01 PM