Kodak's Recordak Division Promotes the Minicard Microfilm Record as a Hybrid between Punched Cards and Microfilm

In July 1959 employees of Eastman Kodak issued the Minicard Film Record as a Common-Language Medium. The purpose of this rather pretentiously titled report was to demonstrate that the Recordak Minicard microfilm image reduction and information retrieval system could be a programmed as an information retrieval system rather than serving primarily as a way of storing and retrieving images. Because information could be stored in a binary method on the microfiche cards the system represented a kind of hybrid between punched cards and microfilm--sort of like punched cards that could store images--a combination digital and analog.

One of the recurring themes that passes through the history of information is the co-existence of old and new media, of which the Minicard system represents a fine example. Just as the electronic computing industry was in the process of selling or leasing some of the second generations of mainframes to companies and educational institutions, Kodak was promoting microfilm as a solution. The system did find clients because at this stage in the development of computing no completely digital system could store or process images like could be handled on microfilm, and probably few, if any people at this time ever expected digital processing to advance as far as it did, or how inexpensive electronic memory could become. However, as can be seen in this brochure, Kodak wanted to promote the Minicard system as a replacement for data stored in punched cards, since that was how so much data was stored at the time, regardless of how well the system would also be used to store images.