Genealogy Chat

Following on from an earlier Thread I posted, I was asking someone today about buying a microfiche reader - they asked me what size the microfiche was!?...... I assumed (probably incorrectly) that they were all the same, like tape cassettes, CDs. M. Steer

Margaret if you google 'microfisch readers' there is lots of info and secondhand ones for sale. Georgina.

Georgina, thanks. I've discovered that there are plenty of microfiche readers on sale. I'm just wondering, now, if all microfiche (or perhaps I should say microfilm?) are the same. Do they come in different 'shapes and sizes'? Therefore, needing a particular 'reader'. In other words, are all 'readers' compatible with all 'film'? I have absolutely no experience of microfiche. M. Steer.

Microfiche and Microfilm are two different things and each require different machines to read them on. Most standard microfiche measure about 6 x 4 inches. Microfilm is on a reel. There are several companies that do new and used fiche readers, even check out e bay, thats where i got mine from.

Margaret, Microfilm and microfiche are two different things, fiche are flat sheets roughly 15x11cm, microfilm come on a roll, you can get readers that will take both but they are usually much more expensive. You need to decide what form you would use most and go from there. Jennifer

You were quicker than me Julie! Jennifer

As Julie said, the standard microfiche measure about 6 x 4 inches. Libraries in my area have microfiche readers - which have to be booked for, say, an hour.

Thankyou all for your replies. So if I have a 'standard' microfiche reader and then order microfiche from the FHS I should be O.K.? M. Steer

Yes Margaret, I have several hundred microfiche and a standard reader, I have never had a fiche I could not read on it. Jennifer