Our new microfilm readers await you!
by Zachary Loeb, MSIS, Patron Services Librarian, Center for Jewish History
If you love microfilm (and Jewish history), then the Center for Jewish History is the place for you! Between the collections of the five partners at the Center for Jewish History and the items on extended loan in the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute, the Center has thousands of reels of microfilm, featuring everything from archival collections to newspapers to genealogical records. The Center is proud to announce that patrons using microfilm will now be able to use brand new ScanPro 2000 digital microfilm readers!
The ScanPro 2000 provides patrons with easy-to-use microfilm readers that offer a host of new functions and present crisp and clean images on 24-inch computer screens. With the simple click of a button, the ScanPro 2000 enables patrons to straighten images, zoom in and out, adjust brightness and contrast, and crop images.
As with the previous microfilm readers available at the Center, the ScanPro 2000s enable patrons to make printouts; however, unlike the previous microfilm readers, the ScanPro 2000s also allow patrons to easily save their images in the JPG, PDF, and other image formats, so that they may be e-mailed or saved to a “jump drive.”
In addition, the ScanPro 2000 allows for saved images to be easily converted into a Word-searchable format, which makes finding the relevant information much easier (though this function works best with microfilm in English). And with its simple “Film Selection Wizard” (to say nothing of the knowledgeable staff at CJH), the ScanPro 2000 makes it easy for microfilm users to get to work, regardless of how much experience they previously have working with microfilm.
The Center for Jewish History is proud to offer eight ScanPro 2000s for patron use. If you are planning a visit to the Lillian Goldman Reading Room or the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute and you anticipate using microfilm, we recommend that you reserve a machine. Please be aware that all microfilm use is subject to copyright and fair use restrictions. To make a microfilm reader reservation, please call (917) 606-8217.