Microfilm, but read it digital

Not so long ago, microfilm was the standard for capturing information that might otherwise be lost. Newspapers, court documents, crumbling deeds and more from those who settled the region and built it up, all are represented on roll after roll of microfilm in repositories all over the world. Digitization is the modern standard, but microfilm is sometimes the only record of documents that were filmed and destroyed, years ago. Microfilm rolls are expensive to produce or purchase, and they require specific conditions for optimal lifespan.

The Missouri State Archives, for example, has a cold-storage "vault" where silver microfilm rolls are kept as permanently as microfilm can be stored. It's a metal-lined room with rolling storage shelves, underground, and is kept very cool, around 55 degrees Fahrenheit. The Cape Girardeau County Archive Center doesn't have an area like that in our facility, but we do have heavy metal cabinets to store microfilm and microfiche.

In July of this year, we replaced our aging microfilm reader with a sleek, digital, desktop model, the ScanPro 3500, thanks to a grant from the Missouri Secretary of State's Local Records program. This machine has the capability to read microfilm or microfiche, which is like microfilm but printed on a card instead of a roll.

The digital microfilm reader allows the user to crop images from the roll into a new document and print either onto paper or save to a USB drive. This is a vast improvement over the old reader, which allowed printing, but the printed product was the same size as the microfilm reader's image -- working with it was fiddly and didn't always capture all of the information.

Beyond the ease of operation, we're happy about this machine for other reasons, not least of which is, our microfilm collection is much more accessible now. The Archive Center houses hundreds of rolls of microfilm, including more than 100 rolls of regional newspaper issues: Jackson's The Southern Democrat from 1850 to 1852, the paper that would become the Cash-Book Journal from 1871 to 2018, the Cape Girardeau Democrat from 1894 to 1907, the Marble Hill newspaper from 1889 to 1950, and Jackson's German-language newspaper the Deutscher Volksfreund from 1886 to its end during World War I in 1918.

Church records account for another 19 rolls of microfilm. Information on land grants, the county's poor farm and court records is also represented. Several rolls from the circuit court and Recorder of Deeds' office are also housed at the Archive.

In addition to the Archive's collection, the public is welcome to visit the Archive Center and use the reader to view their own information on microfilm or microfiche, as well. We recently had a military veteran whose military records were given to him on microfiche, and he called us asking to use the reader. We were thrilled to do so and would be happy to work with anyone with a similar issue.

The Cape Girardeau County Archive Center is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, except state holidays. Our address is 112 E. Washington St. in Jackson, and we recommend calling ahead so we know to expect you, but appointments are not required.

For a list of Cape Girardeau County records on microfilm with the Missouri State Archives, please visit sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/county/croll.