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Re: quality assessment of LDS microfilms



Re LDS microfilming

I have not followed this entire discussion, but wanted to make a few points that I hope are relevant and not redundant.

Back in the 1980s, when I had hair and worked as the State Archivist in Ohio, we negotiated contracts with the Mormons to microfilm local government records according to our standards.  Admittedly, the missionary microfilming program that LDS pursued in the early years had about one standard: is it readable?

We in Ohio wanted a bit more quality than "is it readable" so we set the limits/the standards that the LDS filmers had to hit to do business in Ohio of microfilming local records.  A long and successful relationship developed and the LDS produces film of high quality and I think they are still doing so.

LDS has North American acquisitions (and other acquisition activities worldwide) and you can find out who is in your region, approach them about filming records, and negotiate a contract if LDS has resources that year for such contracts.  It's a sophisticated and well run operation.

The LDS people will provide you with a list of the types of records (certain local government records, church records etc.) in which they are interested.  In some cases they will send filmers to your operation or you can use your filmer and negotiate a contract.  You set the standards --- RLIN or whatever -- you want for the filming and make them produce accordingly --- just like you should with any outside vendor with whom you contract.  LDS does not have unlimited resources to do contracts, but by talking with them you can get find out their capabilities, time frame, interest etc.

I think the above is essentially correct information. The Center for Archival Collections at Bowling Green State Unversity in Ohio has had a very long and successful microfilm program with the LDS ... a fact noted earlier on this list by A.J. Dufresne.

Dennis East
Head, Archives Service Center
University of Pittsburgh

"Kurilecz, Peter" wrote:

Renee wrote:
<snip>
Does anyone know of an objective assessment (as in a published article or
?) concerning the quality of the filming done on the various resources
microfilmed by the LDS church?
<snip>

I agree with what Dean wrote, i.e., we must first define the term
"quality". It is either a technical standard (objective) or is it a content
 standard (subjective They didn't film the newspaper clippings).

Which leads to the following -- what it is the primary purpose of the the
LDS program;Is it to preserve the historical record for all people or to
preserve information that will aid LDS members in their religious
activities?
Maybe this then leads to the following -- Do institutions negotiate with
the LDS as to what will be filmed when the initial contact is made? Will
the microfilming serve the purposes of the institution at the same time it
serves the needs of the LDS? It has been many years since I have worked
with an LDS  microfilmer (the gentleman was very professional and was
filming local government records), but I would imagine that an institution
would negotiate as to what will or won't be filmed.

Just my two-cents worth on a slow day.

Peter A. Kurilecz CRM, CA
Woodside Summit Group, Inc
Richmond, Virginia
mailto:peterk@woodsidesummitgroup.com

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