Archival storage
The item was preserved in a compact analog format rather than left only as paper.
What does microfiche mean
Microfiche means a flat sheet of film that stores many tiny document images.
In everyday use, the word microfiche refers both to the physical sheet itself and to the information stored on it. If a catalog says a newspaper, dissertation, or record is on microfiche, it means you will access it through a magnifying reader rather than as a standard paper copy or a normal digital file.
Plain-language meaning
Break the word into two ideas:
- Micro means reduced to a very small scale.
- Fiche comes from a term for a card or sheet.
Together, microfiche means a small-scale information sheet: a flat film sheet holding reduced document images.
What the term usually implies
Reader required
You normally cannot read the contents without magnification because each page image is heavily reduced.
Legacy access
The collection may predate digital scanning, so microfiche is often the version researchers still consult.