Patent ID: 8500003

Claim:
A method for reading at least one of analog and digital data stored in fields on a microform by means of a device for accessing the microform which is connected to a data processing system by a hardware interface, the method comprising: reading, by a control unit of the device, the at least one of analog and digital data stored on the microform; and presenting, by the control unit, the at least one of analog and digital data stored on the microform to the data processing system as if the microform were a conventional removable data storage medium, and one of: when the microform includes exclusively analog data, generating, by the control unit, a file system corresponding to a removable data storage medium from the information on the arrangement and number of fields containing analog data acquired by a complete scan of the microform and storing the file system in a memory of the control unit; when the microform includes one of exclusively digital data and digital and analog data, reading by the control unit information on the structure and type of data storage from one of a format field identifiable on the microform and from at least one of the digital data fields, generating from the information on the structure and type of data storage a file system corresponding to a removable data storage medium, and storing the file system in the memory of the control unit; and when the microform includes exclusively analog data, reading by the control unit information on the arrangement and number of fields containing analog data from a format field identifiable on the microform, generating from the information on the arrangement and number of fields containing analog data a file system corresponding to a removable data storage medium, and storing the file system in the memory (RAM) of the control unit.