Fair points, I was just trying to give an alternative perspective, especially since my needs are likely different than others on here. I appreciate the feedbac

Fair points, I was just trying to give an alternative perspective, especially since my needs are likely different than others on here. I appreciate the feedback. I tend to agree that storage is not a bad option, but so many libraries just cannot be bothered and would rather discard or sell materials. Fair point about the "browse shelf" feature of online catalogs, but I was talking about the ability to just open an adjacent book and just browse through the book itself. Instant access in other words. This is much more difficult if requesting things from storage, though the trick is to request several dozen books at once from storage. That is reasonable at some libraries but others will be greatly annoyed if you do that, due to limited shelf space for holds/requests. You are right that I do not need to be shown how to use a microfilm machine, but often different libraries or archives have different practices and conventions about how to use their machines, especially for the purpose of preserving the microfilm. Being shown how to use it is more about learning their conventions and practices so that you can continue to have access to their collections later, and also to learn any issues with the machines themselves. For example, some institutions like the Smithsonian require you to wear special gloves when handling microfilm and limits where you can save any scans. Other places are completely free-form, but different machines have different quirks or could be down at the moment. Quirks include blurry images, need to wind the reels in a certain way, slow fast-forward (problem for longer reels), missing parts, susceptibility to nearby vibration, etc. If the undergrad helping you doesn't even know what a microfilm machine is, I doubt they can truly help you figure out how to get this particular machine working right. I ended up figuring this stuff out myself, but I would have preferred some assistance from a professional to be honest.