Do some work in advance of visiting Microforms, to determine what you want and where to find it:
- Learn as much as you can about your event from secondary readings: encyclopedias, course readings, your textbook, scholarly books and articles...
- Look for newspaper or magazine citations in your secondary sources, so you can find those articles
- See if UVic Libraries holds newspapers from the geographic area you are investigating, or where your historical events took place
- Using this guide, which has lists of newspapers from various regions
- Using the Books&Media catalogue to find specific newspaper titles
- Use a newspaper index to find specific articles to read
- Search or browse one of our electronic newspaper archives and note the dates of reporting in those papers.
When you have a list of newspaper titles, along with the dates you're interested in, you can go to Microforms.
- Find the newspaper reels you need (titles are organized by call number, and then they are shelved chronologically)
- Sit down at a ScanPro1000 microform reader/scanner, and log into the computer using your NetLink ID and password.
- Turn on the ScanPro1000 machine using the button at the back of the machine.
- Click on the E-Image logo in the taskbar of your computer. It looks like an 'e' in a red circle, as above.
- Load the film into the machine - ask for help with this task at the Computer Help Desk, but be bold! It works just like it appears to work - thread the film under the first white roller, across the glass plate, and under the second white roller. then pull it up around the empty spool, securing it in the split, and roll that spool up a few times until it's secure.
- Now you can use the forward/backward icons on the screen to move through the days of the newspaper.
- Use the 'auto adjust' and other features to make the image as nice as possible, then you can go to the 'Output' tab to print or email your articles or pages.
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