Microfiche, and its close cousin microfilm, have been around for years. They are valuable research and archive sources in libraries around the world. A microfiche is a 4 by 5 inch (10.2 by 15.2 cm) piece of photographic film, containing printed information in a size too small to be seen by the naked eye. Books, journals and magazines are often archived on microfiche. The advent of microfiche allowed libraries to carry printed resources they would otherwise never have the floor or storage space to hold.

The major advantages of microfiche include storage in a small space, stability of the format, and no special knowledge needed to read it. As long as a microfiche machine is available to magnify the print to readable size, anyone who can read the language can read a microfiche. Because of its small size, microfiche can be archived in storage cabinets, saving floor space. Thousands of government documents are archived on microfiche for this very reason.

Microfiche, like microfilm, is also a stable archival format. When kept in a temperature-controlled environment, it is rated to last 500 years — a crucial advantage in saving cultural documents. Some opinions hold that microfiche has been rendered redundant by the computer age, but this is not necessarily so.