Mikrofilmillä

Mikrofilmillä is a Finnish term that translates to "on microfilm." It refers to the process and medium of storing information on microfilm, a film strip containing greatly reduced photographic images of documents. This technology was widely used before the widespread adoption of digital storage methods for archiving and preserving documents, newspapers, and other textual materials.

The process of microfilming involves photographing documents at a significantly reduced scale and transferring these images onto rolls of photographic film. These rolls, typically 100 feet long, can hold thousands of document pages, making them an efficient way to store large volumes of information in a compact space. Libraries, archives, and government institutions were major users of microfilm for preserving historical records, genealogical information, and other important documents.

To view the information stored on microfilm, a special microfilm reader machine is required. These machines project the magnified images from the film onto a screen, allowing users to read the content. While microfilm offers a durable and stable storage medium, its main disadvantages include the need for specialized equipment for access, the physical space required for storing the film itself, and the potential for deterioration of the film over very long periods if not stored under optimal conditions. In modern times, digital scanning has largely replaced microfilming for most archival purposes due to its ease of access, searchability, and ability to be duplicated and distributed without loss of quality. However, microfilm still plays a role in certain preservation strategies and for accessing historical collections that have not yet been digitized.