Anyone know of any books about survival on microfiche or a company that can put text onto microfiche? I know there are companies that make non-electric handheld microfiche viewers. I'm considering if that would be an effective way of carrying several books without all the bulk and weight.

Thanks
Wayneburg

Hello !

Do you really want micro-fiche, or something like in this product :

http://www.minimap.co.uk/ ?????


Alain

Hi frenchy,

Thanks for the link to the minimap. I remember researching that product a few years ago, however that is not what I had in mind.

I want to be able to have a great deal of information with me that doesn't weigh much, doesn't take up much room, and doesn't require electricity. I'd like to have this info in not only my bug out bag, but I would also like to have it along during hiking trips, or travel. The only method I can think of is microfiche. The books I would like to have with me would obviously be survival related, but for hiking and travel I wouldn't mind having a novel or two. I mean if a book weighs less than an ounce and takes up less space than a map, I could carry a whole library! <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
As for the survival related books. I think of it this way. There is no way I can memorize every piece of information in a survival book. So I figure, if there's a way to take it along, why not?

I know this is not what you were thinking of, but this is what I do. I have a rite in the rain notebook into which I have copied loads of information on many different aspects of survival and other useful things. It is all written very small, with few spaces. This is time consuming but means you can skip out bits that aren't relevent and add to it whenever you want.

ditchfield

I'm with ya on that one ditchfield. That's exactly what I've done, but then I realized I couldn't fit everything I wanted on these little pieces of paper. The information wouldn't only be for me it would have to be readable and understandable to my wife or other loved ones who may have to decipher my abbreviated notes.

As far as what is relevent or not relevent to be included... I can't even guess would be relevent or not. No one can guess what emergency may occur. Don't get me wrong I know what you meant, but remember my wife or other loved ones will have to understand this too. I'd rather have it in full and plain writing, rather than have them guess at what to do. That's why I'm looking into mircofiche.

I always thought you needed large viewers (ie desktop PC size) to read the microfiche, plus a mains power source. In an emergency would these be availabe?
Wouldn't a battery operated palm top with survival info/books on it be a better idea?
Just a thought
Martin

All microfiches I´ve seen so far were readable without additional means when the microfiche is put on a white sheet of paper. A magnifiying glass would make it even easier. If it´s possible to get the microfiche, it would be feasible.

Here is just one example of a hand held microfiche reader that does not require electricity. You can see the microfiche card behind it.


www.microcolour.com

I stand corrected, I've never seen hand held readers before. A couple of problems spring to mind.
1/ If your going to store books on microfiche, your filing and labeling system is going to have to be good...no electronic word searchs available
2/ Wouldn't all the diagrams and pictures be in the "negative" state, making them hard to follow.
On the positive side you'll have a vast source of data in a small physical (as opposed to electronic) state and space.(Ihope this makes sense!) I would also imagine they make excellent fire lighters.
I wonder if it is possible to carry to much info, wasting to much time searching for info when you should be looking after the basics...? This applies to all methods of information storage not just microfiche.
My humble conclusion is that it should be used as one of several means of obtaining info, maybe as a backup to the battery hungry handheld palmtop.
martin

If you had a bunch of notes of your own you wanted to carry with you, you could try printing them out with a laser printer in a very small font on transparency material, or some other water-proof material. A 300dpi printer should be able to print text as small as 2 or 3 points if you get the right font. Laser printer toner consists of little plastic particles that are literally melted onto paper, so I would expect the printing would be as durable as the material you print on (test, naturally).

Back in the day there were printer cartridges for printing dense spreadsheets on single sheets that had fonts that small.

I'd expect the tradeoff is the smaller the text, the more light you're going to want to read it by. Also, you might have trouble reading the text if the sheet gets dirty or wet (droplets). Transparency material would at least wipe off.