Interesting on how damaged the microfiche gets as we move towards the 7th. I remember pulling the same fiche when I was in college. Next to November 1963, it was the most requested fiche in our library.
I have been wondering about the varying condition of microfilm for three years now. I don't think the lousy condition is due to extra abuse of the film itself. The vertical lines that mar the text seem to begin suddenly at the beginning of a new reel and may or may not be gone with the next reel. I haven't come up with a satisfying explanation for the lines. The condition of the paper when first photographed is a factor, as is the quality of the photography itself. Occasionally some debris will get rolled up in the reel and then appear on the copy. Then the condition of the reader and the copying set up there can either help or hurt the clarity of the copies I post. From what I have see so far there will be gradual improvement from now through the end of the reel, which ends on Dec. 10. Then as far as I have seen on the next reel - Dec. 11-20 - it is pretty clear again.
JoeProBono, that reader looks like the same model I used to use at UC Santa Cruz. Since they removed all their microfilm of the WWII era papers and put it in a warehouse in Berkeley I have been using a slightly different model at the Monterey Public Library.