[XBob]

76 - "> scanning from paper to image file is labor-intensive

You have no idea. This is an expense virtually no company is willing to undertake (scanning millions of pages? Sheesh), especially if they have extensive files. And having seen NASA and DTIC documents that they've doen this with... you don't WANT 'em to. The resolution goes straight to hell. They are scanned in B&W, and saved as low-rez PDFs. Many drawings simply disappear."

Boy, are you right there. Many of the shuttle drawings or parts of them have simply 'disappeared' in their conversion to microfische. Just flat gone. Originals, gone. Microfische, empty or illegible or gone.

[RightWhale]

Fiche was not a great technology. Modern scanning is. A world of difference.