Staff follow meticulous procedures during microfilm and photocopy processing to ensure that the film or photocopy of a volume contains all of the information found in the original. In the case of photocopies, where color illustrations and other text are reproduced, meticulous care is used to ensure that the copy is a facsimile of the original volume.

Each original volume is checked page by page to determine whether all of the information is present. If a page, or other information is missing, exhaustive efforts are made to find the missing page before the volume is reformatted. If the missing page cannot be found, in the case of microfilm, an error target is placed in the appropriate place. In the case of a photocopy, a page is inserted at the appropriate place stating that this volume is the best copy available.

Underlining, dirt, or other items that obsure text are removed by hand erasing. Broken maps, foldouts or torn pages are mended before filming or copying. After a page-by-page collation and cleaning, the volume is processed to the microfilm or photocopy vendor.

After filming or photocopy scanning, the original volumes and the new copies are returned in separate containers to ensure against loss. Staff do a second page by page collation of the original volume and the microfilm or photocopy facscimile to ensure that all information captured in the original volume is present in the copy. In the case of microfilm, further quality control measures are required to ensure that the film resolution is sharp and that there is an appropriate level of contrast between the text and the background page.