MHA Associates, Inc. presents:
Scanning for Scientific Notebooks!

Call MHAA today at (707) 423-9300, visit our website at www.mha-associates.com, or email us at info@mha-associates.com. Be sure to let us know you heard about us from the Scientific Notebook Company.

Get your information protected with our Professional Scanning Service!

  • Your Site of Ours
  • Professional Results
  • Confidential and Secure
  • 100% Quality Review on each page scanned
  • Get CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, External HDD data delivery
  • Microfilm backups are also available

MHAA is a solution-based company.

  • If you can’t find the service you want, call and ask for it!
  • We can deliver a turn-key system for your staff, complete with management and training, metrics and performance stats.
  • We can work anywhere in the continental US, and abroad! Call today!

 

MHA Associates, Inc. (MHAA) is your one-stop source for scientific notebook protection. Our service is a complete resource for archiving, protecting, and even sharing the information in your research documentation on your terms.

 

We have performed for many research companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Genentech, Nektar Therapeutics, Medimmue, and NuGen.

Rather than use 19th century technology to record images of pages to microfilm, MHAA uses 21st century equipment and know-how to quickly and efficiently preserve your intellectual property as digital images. Acrobat PDF files are generated for each book, or each category that you define. You can even order microfilm backups of your scans to conform to current company policies.

 

19th century technology

Microfilm first saw military use during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. During the Siege of Paris, the only way for the provincial government in Tours to communicate with Paris was by pigeon post, and, as the pigeons could not carry paper dispatches, the Tours government turned to microfilm. Using a microphotography unit evacuated from Paris before the siege, clerks in Tours photograped paper dispatches and compressed them to microfilm, which were carried by homing pigeons into Paris and projected by magic lantern while clerks copied the dispatches onto paper.

 

Advantages of Microfilm, and how they measure up to Digital Storage

Microfilm advantages:

  • It is compact, with far smaller storage costs than paper documents. Normally 98 document size pages fit on one fiche, reducing to about 0.25% original material.
  • It is cheaper to distribute than paper copy. Most microfiche services get a bulk discount on reproduction rights, and have lower reproduction and carriage costs than a comparable amount of printed paper.
  • It is a stable archival form when properly processed. Most library microfiche use polyester with silver halide dyes in hard gelatin, with an estimated life of 500 years in air-conditioning. Unfortunately, in tropical climates with high humidity, fungus eats the gelatin used to bind the silver halide. Thus, diazo-based systems with lower archival lives (20 years) which have polyester or epoxy surfaces are used.
  • Since it is analog (an actual image of the original data), it is easy to view. Unlike digital media, the data format is instantly comprehensible to persons literate in the language; the only additional equipment that is needed is a simple magnifying glass. This reduces the possibility of obsolescence.

Microfilm Disadvantages

  • The principal disadvantage of microfiche is that the image is too small to read with the naked eye. Libraries must use special readers that project full-size images on a ground-glass screen.
  • A significant disadvantage is that when stored in the highest-density drawers, it is easy to misfile a fiche, which is thereafter unavailable. Some libraries therefore keep the microfiche cabinet in a restricted area, and retrieve fiches on demand. Some fiche services use lower-density drawers with labelled pockets for each card.
  • Another disadvantage is that a conventional photocopier cannot reproduce the images. Libraries using microfiche often have a few viewers that can produce a photocopy of an image, for a nominal fee.
  • The final disadvantage (endemic to all analog media) is that microfiche can be reproduced only a limited number of generations, while data stored on digital media does not degenerate and control software often include error detection and correction schemes.
  • Counterpoint for digital storage

Digital Image archival is superior to microfilm for the following reasons:

  • While Microfilm is indeed smaller than the paper it represents, digital storage is smaller still. 10,000 pages* can be stored on a single CD-ROM, and a dual-layer DVD can hold 160,000 pages*, equivalent to 1,630 microfiche cards.
  • Distribution of digital images is simple and intrinsically free. Images can be sent by FTP, email, or webpage, as well as fax or printed and mailed in the traditional way.
  • Digital information, when correctly managed, does not die. While it is true that the medium (5 ¼” floppy disk, SyQuest cartridge, etc.) can become obsolete, data on a server can easily be migrated from old systems to new ones.
  • While digital images require special equipment to read the image, this equipment is now ubiquitous. The desktop computer, once a novelty, can be found in every business office and more than 50% of homes in the United States. Items like cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDA) are now able to view scanned images.
  • Digital images, once indexed and submitted to a database, can not be misfiled. An analog filing system degrades over time and with use; a digital system does not fail or degrade over time, and can be improved with more usage (contextual indexing).
  • Microfilm images cannot be reproduced without special equipment. Scanned images can be printed with any combination of personal computer and printer. Furthermore, the ability to print an image, or an entire document, can be controlled with network permissions.
  • Finally, to restate from above, “data stored on digital media does not degenerate and control software often include error detection and correction schemes.” Once your information is scanned, it will always be available, and will never degrade from reference, general use, or environmental conditions.

 

* Assumes 200DPI B/W imagery.