Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

The next library I visited (or in this case revisited) was the NY Public Libray's 42nd street location, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. I had gone to this building a few times during my summer internship as well, and I had just as many printing problems here as I did at the Schomburg. Newspaper reels tended to be fairly damaged due to their old age, and the poor lighting on the machines affected the printout quality as well. The one advantage that this library had over the Schomburg was that it had a larger amount of microfilm machines, as well as a bigger collection of newspapers. Upon returning a second time, I once again found that this was not the ideal library for printing. My search continues.

Schomburg Library

Last summer I interned at a film company in Harlem (Firelight Films), where I helped them both with organizing photos and researching. I was often asked to go to the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center, which was located just a few blocks away from the offices. Here, I was often asked to look at old Newspapers (such as the Philadelphia Enquirer and the Chicago Press) to find articles pertaining to Jesse Owens, the subject of the company's latest documentary.

I would often have to use the Microform Machines to print out these articles, and I wouldn't exactly describe it as fun. Nearly every time I found an article I wanted, the page came out illegible. Even more frequently, I needed to do two print jobs to receive a full-page. Charging 35 cents a page, this could have been a costly endeavor if the librarians weren't thoughtful enough to reimburse me each time I had a problem with what I had printed.

Near the end of my time working at Firelight, I told the librarians that maybe they should look into either putting out better machines or writing better guidelines. Sadly, I returned to the library yesterday and still found the machines weren't to my liking. While more recent papers (such as the New York Times) I was able to print out with little to no issue, I had problems with older, more obscure papers (i.e. Cleveland Gazzete). Although I don't quite think this was the fault of the machines, as the microfilms were in bad condition due to their age.

@ the library

Hi, there folks. On this blog I will be posting my findings on microfilm machines in libraries around New York. I had to use a microfilm projector quite often at my last internship, and I can say without hesitation that it quickly became the bane of my existence. Still, if I am truly to become an archivist than I better get the hang of it. With this blog I hope to unravel the difficulties, and advantages, of using a microfilm machine.