Preparing Archive Records for Microfilming

Abstract

Without claiming to offer any universal solutions, the author presents some guidelines to be followed in preparing records for microfilming and resulting from the experience gained at the Archive of Croatia. The materials evaluated i.e. selected for microfilming must be first properly and completely filed. This should be followed by preparation of a priority list to be strictly observed or changed in exceptional cases only. The priority list serves as a basis for long term, mid-term and annual planning. First on the filming schedule are the archive tools, such as inventories, registries, etc. The materials are then filmed according to an established archive system. Most exceptions occur as a result of outsized formats, such as those of maps, drawings and the like, which can be helped by using standard forms. In filming special care should be taken of documents clamped together (not always logically), titles (which can be more than one and illegible), pagination (which can be incomplete or even dual), enclosures, stamps, parchments, big formats (requiring filming in sections), scripts written in pencil or fading ink, etc. The archive materials are prepared by an archivist or a technician under his supervision. The archivist provides the heading data (on the source, the archivist himself, the photographer, the type of film, etc.) and enters them in a form being proceeded to the film laboratory. The whole preparation and filming procedure requires a continuous cooperation between the archivist and the lab photographer. Emphasis is laid on the importance of preparatory works as a precondition for correct microfilming.