Autoloading microfiche reader

摘要

An apparatus for viewing microfiches held in a cassette has a housing defining a rear seat for the cassette holding the microfiches and having a front viewing area, an optical system on the housing for viewing a microfiche in the area, a holder constructed to carry one of the microfiches displaceable on the housing in the area with respect to the optical system for presenting selected portions of a microfiche carried by the holder to the optical system, and a selector in the housing for separating a selected microfiche in the cassette from the other microfiches in the cassette. A drive support is rotatable about and displaceable along an upright axis between the viewing area and the cassette-holding seat and has a pair of generally diametrally opposite arms having outer ends provided with respective drive rollers. The support is rotatable about its axis between a transport position with one roller engaged in the area and the other roller in the cassette in the seat and with the arms extending in a transport direction between the area and seat, and an out-of-service position extending transverse to the direction with neither roller in the area or in the seat. A motor rotates the rollers when the support is in the transport position in one rotational sense to displace a microfiche in the transport direction from the cassette in the seat to the holder in the area and in the opposite rotational sense to displace a microfiche from the holder in the area to the cassette in the seat.