This policy statement will be incorporated into the department's Migrographics Policy Manual.

Rationale

The department is unable to ensure the continuity of trained staff and appropriate information technology in the offices of local government officials. Given this reality, the department recognizes that there is a clear benefit in having an eye readable copy of a public record available to users who may not have access to the electronic version of that record. With this in mind, the Department for Libraries and Archives issued Policy Memorandum PM 96-1 requiring a hardcopy, eye readable backup to all digitally imaged records with retention values of longer than ten (10) years.

The department encourages the practice of producing archival quality microfilm directly from the digitized record as the easiest and most economical method of meeting this standard. However, microfilm produced in this manner presents some unique challenges not common to film produced in the traditional way. This additional policy statement is therefore necessary to provide measurable standards that will ensure that archival quality.

Policy

The format of the microfilm shall be such that people with access to microfilm readers can readily find items on the film by using the index, in the same way they do now with microfilm created from paper systems. These microfilming procedures shall not be a substitute for normal system backup procedures. Rather, they are regarded as an additional safeguard for permanent records of a critical nature.

The Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives’ standards for microfilm produced from scanned images have the following elements:

Microfilm type: The microfilm produced must be silver halide, processed for archival storage. This is a standard previously adopted by the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, based on Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) guidelines.

Indexing: The content of all the index fields associated with the images on individual rolls must be recorded on the microfilm. Images on the film should be preceded by an alphabetical index of all recorded names on the roll. This index must provide a numeric reference to frames on the microfilm containing records in which the names appear.

Order of the Images and Frequency of Copying: The prevailing method accepted by the user community (book and page for recorded instruments) shall be used. Only one record series can be placed on a roll unless a specific exception to this rule in granted, in writing and in advance, by Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. The microfilm copies shall be made when sufficient records have been scanned to fill a complete roll(s).

Title Targets: Eye-legible titling information must include the following: (1) name of agency; (2) records series title; (3) span date(s) of records; and (4) starting and/or ending indexing information.

Resolution target sheets: The test chart used for scanner maintenance (IEEE Standard 167-1987 Facsimile Test Chart) must be scanned at a weekly interval and placed at the beginning and end of the appropriate microfilm rolls in order to permit quality control resolution testing. The scan chart at the beginning shall correspond to the week of the earliest scanned record on the roll and the one at the end shall be scanned during the week of the last scan on the roll. This scan chart can be obtained from AIIM. The date that each chart was scanned must be displayed on the film.

The acceptable range for film resolution is one hundred (100) lines per millimeter (LPM). KDLA quality control testing will evaluate the microfilm version of the scanned Facsimile Test Chart referenced above. The line direction method will be used to calculate resolution with a 50X to 150x magnification microscope; the lines per millimeter of the smallest pattern which can be distinguished or resolved is then multiplied by the camera reduction figure to calculate the overall LPM.

Density: The minimum background density for Computer Output Microfilm (COM) produced microfilm is 1.90 or higher. This is a previously accepted state standard, established by Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives and following AIIM standards.