FamilySearch issued a news release yesterday that was a good news-bad news story. The news was not unexpected. It was only a matter of time.
The bad news is FamilySearch will discontinue its microfilm distribution services September 1, 2017. The last day to order microfilm will be on August 31. The change is the result of the obsolescence of microfilm technology and the significant progress made in FamilySearch’s microfilm digitization efforts.
The good news is FamilySearch plans to digitize all of its microfilms by the end of 2020. But that requires patience, and genealogists are not the most patient.
In the 1980s, microfilm readers were a popular way to read old newspapers. Source: University of Haifa Younes & Soraya Nazarian Library.
To date, more than 1.5 million microfilms have been digitized by FamilySearch. The remaining microfilms should be digitized by the end of 2020, and all new records from its ongoing global efforts are already using digital camera equipment.
Family history centres will continue to provide access to relevant technology, premium subscription services, and digital records, including restricted content not available at home.
According to FamilySearch’s news release issued yesterday, “When approved by priesthood leaders, centers may continue to maintain microfilm collections already on loan from FamilySearch after microfilm ordering ends. Centers have the option to return microfilm that is available online or otherwise not needed. As more images are published online, centers may reevaluate whether to retain microfilm holdings.”
Getting Ontario land records will be more difficult
In my limited experience, land record info from NJ was unreadable. Hope their digitizing will also clarify the images, or they rephoto
original records.
I applaud FamilySearch for recognizing that microfilm is not the future and is taking action to do something about it. What worries me is how many archives, libraries, historical societies, etc out there have valuable stuff on microfilm and don’t have any plans to digitize. What are we going to lose when microfilm reader parts get scarcer and scarcer but some institutions haven’t done anything to digitize their holdings?