Micrographics

Selected archives held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) are copied unto microfilm to preserve the information they contain.

Microfilming has been proven to last a long time which means that it is a very reliable way of preserving information for the future.  It is also a very economical process.

Once an archive has been microfilmed, the public use the microfilm for information instead of the original documents.  This is an extremely important preservation measure that protects the original documents from damage caused by the wear and tear of handling.  Very fragile or irreversibly damaged records especially are microfilmed  for this reason.  This is called ‘preservation’ microfilming.

Archives are also microfilmed for other reasons.  PRONI’s most important and rare archives are microfilmed to minimise losses should disaster strike.  This is called ‘security’ microfilming.

Sometimes private collections are loaned to PRONI to be microfilmed for public use.  This is called ‘acquisition’ microfilming.

At present, PRONI has 25 microfilm reading machines for public use (see Self-Service Microfilm Room).