Regular patrons of the George Thorman Local History room have already discovered that we have a new ViewScan microfilm reader/printer. This microfilm reader is designed in many ways to function like the old microfilm readers, so that the learning curve to use the new technology is not so steep. The appearance on the screen is similar to the old ones, so scrolling a newspaper is done in a similar manner as well. There is a print button which prints out a screen shot, just like the old one. But of course you can do so much more with the new one!
The only way to save articles on the old reader/printers was to print it. With the ViewScan, you can save pages or articles directly to your USB or send them in your email.
Over the years, people have often asked for a print of the cover page of the newspaper. Since the old reader/printer did not display an entire page, the only way to get an entire front page was to print out several sheets and tape them together. Now the entire page appears on the screen, and can easily be printed on one sheet of paper!
What was in the news the day you were born? Well, for any whose birthday is June 26, 1986, this was the front page news in the St. Thomas Times Journal:
Do you want to save just one article? You can now do a digital crop and save that!
Choose from several file formats such as JPEG, TIFF, or PDF. Photos can be edited using the ViewScan software.
Our microfilm collection includes the St. Times Journal since it started in 1918, and other local papers that reach as far back as 1859! Come on in and give it a try.