HIST 301: Historian's Craft (Benes, Spring 2025)

Microfilm series can be massive, often including many thousands of pages spread across hundreds of microfilm rolls. 

We cannot order full microfilm sets through ILL, nor should you skim thousands of pages of microfilm. Fortunately, microfilm collections typically have an index.

Sometimes the Index is itself microfilm, either the first or last roll in the series. 

More often, the Index is a print booklet kept above the microfilm cabinet. These are listed in the catalog record for the microfilm.

Using these guides and indexes are extremely helpful in narrowing your searches.

If a microfilm series is small, with only 4 or 5 rolls, we can possibly order the full series.

If, as is often the case, the microfilm series is dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of rolls, we need users to respect specific rolls.

A very good strategy is to ILL the microfilm guide FIRST, use it to identify rolls of interest, and then place orders for those specific materials.

When placing the ILL request, indicate that you want the guide to a specific microfilm series. If you can identify libraries that hold the series, that will speed up the process.  

A significant portion of NARA's collect has never been scanned into print, digital, nor microform reproductions, but high-use collections have been reproduced in various formats. Most digital reproductions of NARA material is actually a digital scan of microfilm scans, not digital scans of the original.

1. When you find NARA materials of interest in the NARA catalog, check whether it has a publication number. It may have none, or it may have several. This indicates if it has been reproduced.  The number will look like M950 or another Letter-number combination. 
2. If it is digitized by NARA, a PDF will be on the page. Your job is done!
3. If it's not digitized, look up the publication number in WorldCat. The microfilm series will show up there, meaning it can be ILL'd
4. If the collection is digitized as part of a database series, worldcat will indicate this as well.

Note that many NARA series that were scanned into Microfilm have been scanned by private companies or nonprofits, so it is worth while to search the collection name online as well.

1. Find the publication number in the NARA catalog first. NARA finding aids will also indicate whether material has been reproduced in digital, print, or microfilm formats.

2. Search the publication number in WorldCat to see if it has been scanned as microfilm or is included in a large database

Results

3. Now you can order this microfilm via ILL. Include the OCLC number in your request, and request it as a book. Before placing the order, please search the title online to make sure it hasn't been scanned. This specific series, for example, is fully online via the NARA website, Internet Archive, and FamilySearch.