New microfilm machine at library brings the past into focus

The Chickasha Public Library's new microfilm machine has features that allow patrons to browse the past with ease.

Users can use the touchscreen, zoom in, crop, resize and print. Using the cropping option, several cropped items can be saved onto one page. There are even two USB ports on top so that patrons can save and take their research with them, Lillie Huckaby, Chickasha Public Library Director, said. 

The new microfilm machine helps the library serve the public in other ways. For example, someone from another city looking for an obituary printed in the Chickasha newspaper could probably find it through the Chickasha Public Library before, but now the library can email the obituary. 

In the microfilm files, the library has Chickasha, Minco, Tuttle, Rush Springs, Alex and Verden newspapers, marriage records and the Oklahoma Census dating back to the year 1900.

The new machine was purchased by the Chickasha Friends of the Library and with contributions from the Genealogy Society.