_microfiche_: was ist das?

Tue Jan 21 09:17:37 UTC 2014

Okay. But do people prefer

five microfiches or five sheets of microfiche?

On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 6:38 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: _microfiche_: was ist das?
>
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>
> I spent maybe 20 years reading 18th & 19th C newspapers almost every day.
> Would still be reading them every day, in fact,  if I hadn't moved out here
> to the frontier.  After a stretch, reading them on microfilm would drive me
> batty, but then, a day or two spent reading from the original paper at the
> N-YHS and trying to make a note of something printed near the upper gutter
> of the volume, while holding the notebook below the lower edge of the
> volume, would have me yearning for the film again.
> Meanwhile, I never encountered a run of a newspaper on microfiche, so I
> suppose that the trade thinks as I do, that having 6 months worth of a
> 4-pages-an-issue, 6-issues-a-week newspaper on a single reel of film must
> be more convenient than having that same file on a wad of fiche.
> I now mostly use digitized files, since that's what's available to me where
> I am now.  That format I don't find very convenient for reading through the
> paper, one day and then the next day, and the next after that -- no more
> convenient than a spool of film.  It of course offers the possibility of
> searching, but my experience shows me that key-word searches of newspaper
> texts digitized after printing will retrieve perhaps one-third of what is
> in fact there.  Indeed, probably saying that these searches only miss 2 out
> of 3 appearances of what is being searched for is too generous.  I've not
> tried to quantify this rigorously, because my experience also teaches me
> that the people who ought to be interested not only aren't interested, but
> very strongly don't want to be told that a technology that is convenient
> for librarians and saves researchers from having to exert themselves over
> their research in fact doesn't work very well.
>
> GAT
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 5:40 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu
> >wrote:
>
> > As a librarian and library user, this is the first time I ever heard
> > anyone refer to microfilm as "convenient."  Microfiche is far easier to
> use.
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________________
> > From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
> > George Thompson [george.thompson at nyu.edu]
> > Sent: Monday, January 20, 2014 12:40 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: _microfiche_: was ist das?
> >
> > Microfilm and microfiche are the same stuff, just stored differently.
> > Microfilm is in very long strips, stored on reels, like motion picture
> film
> > or videotape, if any of you are old enough to remember them.  Microfiche
> is
> > cut up into 3x5 or 4x6 inch cards, usually holding up to about 100
> images.
> > The fiche are a pain in the ass for librarians, since if one is taken out
> > for use, there is a too-good chance that it will be put back in the wrong
> > place, especially if the cabinets are accessible to the public.
>  Microfilm
> > reels hold thousands of images, and so are convenient for long runs of
> > magaznes and newspapers, and are easier to keep in order, but can be
> > wasteful of drawer space, if they carry only a book or a few pamphlets on
> > just a couple of yards of film.
> >
> > Let's not get into microcards and microprint.
> >
> > The image of stock certificates and bonds piling up behind a microfilming
> > camera between one spring cleaning and the next is a useful reminder that
> > it's not just the present generation of money-manipulators who are
> careless
> > and incompetent.
> > Let's not get into over-paid, either.
> >
> > GAT
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 11:54 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> >
> > >  At 1/20/2014 06:35 AM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
> > >
> > > What are sheets of microfiche? My only experience with microfiche had
> > > them on rolls of tape.
> > >
> > >
> > > In my experience, "microfiche" is multiple images on a single film
> sheet,
> > > as I remember about 4 by 7 inches, read by moving the sheet from image
> to
> > > image in the viewer.  The OED has the same memory, except perhaps for
> > > size:  "A flat piece of film, usually the size of a standard index
> card,
> > > containing microphotographs of the pages of a book, periodical,
> > catalogue,
> > > etc."
> > >
> > > "Microfilm" is what rolls on tape.
> > >
> > > Joel
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------ The
> American
> > > Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > George A. Thompson
> > Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> > Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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