Hello Bob, I don't wish to go into this too deeply, but the first thing that came to mind on reading your message was, shouldn't we be extremely grateful that these business documents actually exist, with some being from the 17th century. Secondly, that the documents are deposited in a Metropolitan Borough Council (MBC) Archive Service, rather than a County Record Office, i.e. Worcestershire or Staffordshire, so that local people within the Black Country can view these records? On the web site I gave, www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/leisure-culture/libraries/archives/workshop I would refer you to the section "Frequently Asked Questions" Regards Jean Bob wrote: > Thank you Jean, that does help and sounds like good news for the BC > Archives. Even so, will they or have they already microfilmed these > archives? To my knowledge, there still is nothing that compares with the > quality of properly made microfilm images for archiving documents and > images/paintings/drawings. Surely the digitization process and microfilming > process could be integrated and one could have the benefits of both for very > little more than either one separately(except for the cost of hardware and > most archives already have microfilm equipment). Someday the digitization > process may catch up with analog filming but realistically, with my > understanding of the poor resolution of digital techniques relative to > analog film/microfilm, I don't see that happening in the next 50 years. In > addition, the ease of storing, duplicating and longevity of microfilm are > powerful arguments to use microfilm. I'm not an archivist by profession, so > I'm not aware of the latest technology except what's available to consumers. > The technology available to consumers for viewing microfilm could stand > oodles of improvement. > > What does Jean say? >