Microfilm is produced in long strips, like motion picture film, and comes in 16 and 35-millimeter sizes. The microfilm strips are loaded on to reels, similar to motion picture film reels, although much smaller. The reels are placed in boxes, which are labeled with call numbers and (often) some bibliographic information. These boxes are placed in trays, each of which can hold up to ten microfilm reels, and shelved in call number order on the ranges of shelves that stand south of the microform readers in the Microforms Reading Room on the east side of the third floor of the Joseph Regenstein Library.

Microfiche are transparencies that come in either 3" x 5" or 4" x 6" sheets. The microfiche in the Library's collection are also marked with call numbers and stored in call number order in cabinets interspersed among the microfilm shelves.

Opaque microforms include microcards, which are 3" x 5" and microprint, which are 6" x 9". Opaques (microcards and microprint) can have images on both sides while microfilm and microfiche, as transparencies, can have images on only one side. The microcards are also arranged in call number order, in a cabinet in Room 308. The microprint collection is shelved in boxes, arranged in call number order, along the west wall of the Microforms Reading Room, to the north of the video collection.

The standard reduction ratio (the factor by which the microform image must be multiplied to equal the size of the original image) for microforms ranges from 12 to 25. The microform readers, reader-printers, and scanner in the Microforms Reading Room possess lenses that easily accommodate microforms in the 12 to 25 magnification ratio. Our machines can also accommodate microforms with ratios up to 50 or 60, but those much smaller images may make it difficult to obtain clear paper copies. The Joseph Regenstein Library microforms collection contains several large microfiche collections with magnification ratios larger than 60. These, which are called ultrafiche, must be viewed on a special microfiche reader which the library obtained specifically for the purpose of reading ultrafiche.

    The Library's Middle East Department has an extensive collection of journals, monographs, government publications, and other published research materials on microfilm. Many of these items are catalogued and are indicated in the online catalog by the notation "Middle East Microforms." These catalogued items as well as others which are uncatalogued are listed in the MEDOC Catalogue of Microform Projects.
    The Department also holds microfilm copies of approximately 2000 manuscripts from libraries and universities around the world, most of which are uncatalogued. These are listed in Manuscripts in Microformat.
    Any of these items may be requested from staff in JRL 560, who will charge items out to be used onsite in the Middle East Microfilm Room (JRL 505).

Frank Conaway maintains the Guide to Microform Sources for History and Political Science in the University of Chicago Library, which includes some 900 annotated citations for source materials in microform, including materials from national and other archives, collections of personal papers and other manuscript collections, and collections of books, pamphlets, serials, newspapers, and official documents. Includes chapters on sources for United States, Latin America, Great Britain, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, and Australia and Oceania; and chapters on sources for women's studies and African-American studies, and Judaica. Includes index of subjects, authors, and titles.

The Center for Research Libraries collects and lends many large microform sets. One may consult the Microform Collections Index for detailed listings. In an Advanced Search of the Center's Catalog, one can limit by reproduction type to find additional microform materials. Items can be ordered through Interlibrary Loan.

The following microform machines are available for viewing, photocopying, and scanning digitally:

• Seven Canon machines that can accommodate and make copies from either microfilm or microfiche.
• One Canon machine that is linked to a computer terminal for saving digital images from either microfilm or microfiche on to a flash drive.
• Two Dukane microfilm readers.
• One Northwest 2020 reader.
• Two microfiche readers for reading standard microfiche.
• One microfiche reader -- just outside of JRL 309 -- equipped with a special lens for reading ultrafiche. Photocopies can not be made from ultrafiche.
• One reader for opaques -- microprint and microcards. Photocopies can not be made from microprint or microcards.

Microforms Service Hours the Autumn, Winter, and Spring Quarters

Microforms service hours during Summer Quarter

Interim schedule

For an online listing of the Microforms service hours by date, including holidays, click here.