microfiche

/ˌmaɪkrəˈfiʃ/

Microfiche is a type of film that's used to store information. If you're doing research in very old newspapers, your library might have them available on microfiche.

Microfiche is basically tiny photographs of old, fragile materials like journals, magazines, and newspapers. Before information began to be saved electronically on computers, microfiche was one way to save space in archives and libraries — instead of shelves full of journals, they could store drawers of thin photographic film containing an enormous amount of information. To view microfiche, you need a special magnifying device. Microfiche comes from French roots meaning "small slip of paper."

Definitions of microfiche

1. noun

   a small sheet of film on which many pages of data have been reduced and photographed, and which is read using a magnification system
   type of:

   microfilm

   film on which materials are photographed at greatly reduced size; useful for storage; a magnification system is used to read the material