As of Wednesday, all the old wonderful readers...4 of them are gone to the heaven of 16mm readers. I tried the one remaing (the one without the sign OUT OF ORDER). I could get it more or less to work - if I stood up and moved the reel along with that turn thing. I had to stand up to read the record....and every now and then the machine would stall and it was difficult to get the thing going again. After aboaut 45 minutes us useless research, I gave up. There are 2 large machines for 16mm reels. The assistant there didn't know how they worked...One of the machines had only a radius of light ...a circle of light some 12 inches. And he could not get my film to show up. But who could read it in that circle of light. As for the other machine my film showed up but was impossible to read...all blurry and one had to stand up to move the reels. Crazy. Last night I wrote to someone who works there...have known him for years-- and he said he would try to get someone to fix that machine. He had once told me that they no longer had parts for these machines...that they no longer were making them. I often wonder what has happened to all those researchers...There were 4 machines for 16mm films and as I researched sometimes I had people next to me researching Italy (lots of them), Germany, Puerto Rico, and, of course, most of us were researching the Azores. It's a pity because the Oakland library has nearly all the Azores films. I haven't done much researching for years as my lines in the Azores are finished, but I have gone now and then to help others, or look something up for them. In those few times I never came across an Azores researcher at the machines. There must be nearly 40 machines , but the last times I have gone...no one was using the machines....also a lot of OUT OF ORDERS attached to the machines. Eloise P.S. Just remembered that the head of the the FHC in Oakland is half Portuguese...and we once, some years ago, before he became the head, had discussed researching the Azores. He speaks Portuguese. He most know of the terrible condition of these readers.
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