Blog
Raising the Dead (or) Lost in Translation: The Microfilm Brouhaha
With the recent FamilySearch announcement that it will discontinue its microfilm distribution service has come confusion about the availability and necessity of microfilm. Three days after the announcement, we received this email (edited for space) from a family history librarian and archivist: “…I’m not sure how familiar you are with the family history community, but it was recently announced that FamilySearch is discontinuing its microfilm services. Additionally, a reputable family history blog claims that this development is because FamilySearch ‘cannot buy…
Award-winning Author, Abby Geni, Brings Suspense to the Crowley Booth
In anticipation of this week’s American Library Association (ALA) conference in Chicago, Illinois, I chatted with Crowley’s guest author 2016 Barnes and Noble Discover Fiction Award-winner, Abby Geni, to learn more about her connection to libraries, her intriguing debut novel, “The Lightkeepers” (which she will be signing in the Crowley Booth #2438 on Saturday and Sunday of the conference) and much more. Q: How have libraries played a role in your life? A: Libraries have played an extensive role in my life,…
Sales and the Stacks: A Library Show Through the Eyes of Crowley Reps
Next week at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, Illinois, the Crowley reps will take to the exhibit hall to demonstrate a wide variety of scanners, software and services in Booth 2438. On-hand will be book and document scanners, patron microfilm scanners, digital hosting solutions and 71MP cameras for end-user integration. In anticipation of this event, I sat down with two of Crowley’s sales representatives, Robie Harris (RH) and Zak Lubchansky (ZL), to get their take on libraries and the conferences that have…
Crafting the Craftsman: Digitization Brings Important Museum Database Online
In talking with Gary Albert, Adjunct Curator of Silver and Metals at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA), editor of the MESDA Journal and self-proclaimed digestive tract (“the research and archives are the food; the articles are what come out”), one thing is abundantly clear: he loves his job(s). A New Jersey native educated in Ohio, Albert moved to North Carolina and has ironically become a passionate spokesman for historic craftsman and the material culture of the early…
Scanning the Past, Creating the Future: Professional Artists Join Crowley Imaging
At Crowley Imaging, a large portion of time is spent each day digitizing and preserving the works of well-known writers, painters and historians of the past. This has the benefit of introducing our imaging specialists to artists, authors and contributions they might not have come across otherwise. This month, our cultural education includes the work of two talented photographers – who also happen to be Crowley Imaging employees. Alison Bur (AB) and Brady Wilks (BW) are currently part of a five-person team working to…
Goldilocks and the Three Scanners: How to Tell Which Overhead Scanning System is “Just Right”
As far as making choices go, Goldilocks had it easy. All her options were laid out in front of her to simply eat, sit and sleep her way to finding which porridge, chair and bed best fit her needs. If all options were laid out before us when faced with making a comparative choice, finding the best fit for any consumer would be as easy as savoring perfectly-tempered porridge. Alas, within the document scanning market – in this case…
Massive Microfilm Inventory Underway
Crowley Imaging recently began a year-long project to inventory, barcode and inspect an archival collection of 75 years-worth of government microfilm records located in an underground mine in Pennsylvania. The inventory and inspection process will generate an accurate collection listing of over one million reels of microfilm along with a corresponding barcode database that describes 25 different characteristics of each film reel including the record name, years contained, film types and length of each roll. The resulting information will support…
176 Year Old Newspaper Fights Slavery; Echos Today’s News
Last August we received a plea via email: “We want a scan of four pages of a fragile 1841 newspaper that is approximately 16 7/8″ x 22 3/4″. I suspect this is too small a job for your company, but I thought I’d try. We are a small museum with a pitifully small budget.” How could we resist? What Jane Rissler, director of the Jefferson County (W Va.) Museum and author of the email, didn’t know is that we keep…
Aperture Cards: The Last of an Art Form
Every once in a while an email pops into my inbox that reminds me how unique The Crowley Company is. A few weeks ago, I received notice from our CEO that a major manufacturer of aperture cards in Asia had stopped production, thereby rendering our Wicks and Wilson division the world’s only manufacturer of aperture cards. Say what?! After embracing this fact through fantasies of royal successions (because the Wicks division is located in the U.K. and after binge-watching “The Crown”…
Joshilyn Jackson: Meet The Author (and the scanners) at #alamw17
The Crowley Company is getting ready to kick off our trade show season in Booth #834 with next week’s American Library Association’s Midwinter conference in Atlanta, Ga. The exhibit runs from Friday, January 20th through Monday, January 23rd and offers us a chance to meet with face-to-face with librarians who have, over the decades, become customers and friends. The exhibit gives them a chance to see what’s new in the industry while allowing us to discover the new technology and preservation…