Dorsey MicroFilm (fwd)

[Koontz John E]

I've taken the liberty of posting this to the list.  Tjhis a great
question which came to me as a personal query, but it's one for which I
don't have an answer and an answer would be very desirable to SIouanists
at large.  I've been asking myself the same question for about two years
now!  I was just discussing this with Mark Swetland, too.  Is it possible
to convert microfilm to a stack of CDs with image files on them?  Does
anyone know the tools for this, or the name of any services that do it for
you?

John E. Koontz
http://spot.colorado.edu/~koontz

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 01:16:55 -0600
From: Tom Leonard <tleonard at prodigy.net>

Aho, John!

Have a question for you. Several years ago I purchased all of the
microfilms (6 or 8 rolls) of the Dorsey material at the National Archives.
These were the rolls that you had told me about.

[Note:  The world owes these to Mark Swetland who went to the NAA and made
them for them.  Unlike the APS, the NAA does not - or did not at the time,
anyway - make it a practice to microfilm their holdings.  I suspect this
is a budgetary issue, since it's kind of an obvious step.]

There's some great material on them but I don't have convenient access to
a microfilm reader. Copying each slide got way too expensive and the
copies were hard to read.

Considering the advances in technology and lower equipment prices, it
seems to me we should now be able to scan the film into tiff , GIF, JPEG,
etc., files. I ordered "reverse images" on the films, i.e. black writing
on white background (a whole lot easier to read). I've been shopping
around eBay and the like for scanners but I really don't know enough about
what is required.

Have any idea about what's needed here? Does anyone at CU have the
necessary equipment or ability to advise?

Having the Dorsey material in digital format would be a whole lot easier
for a bunch of us; don't you think?

Would appreciate any ideas you might have on this.

Wi'btha ho!
Tom