This could be due to the paper-only policy which discourages students from exploiting the new media. The current system at York and the University of Toronto ensure the long term preservation of theses and dissertations. Being a black and white photographic process, archival microfilming does not reproduce colour nor can it copy anything outside the realm of the flat page. Copies are meant to be used, and damaged copies can be re-ordered, so this is not a real problem. Microfiche has been rightly criticized as a unfriendly user medium.
Users find microfiche readers cumbersome to use and occasionally hard to read.
While microfiche readers allow for quick photocopying, anyone who wants to read and take notes at a reader for any length of time will find the experience uncomfortable. Regardless of the format used, if the two Universities accepted electronic submissions and provided World Wide Web access to a database of electronic theses substantial savings in time and money could be realized. In the electronic submission model the student enters relevant information , along with their e-thesis, into a Web form. With electronic submission a single copy resides on a server and interested parties create an electronic link to it. Electronic submission also eliminates physical handling of the paper copy.