Archive for the ‘Digitization Services’ Category
DAR, Darling: Digitizing Revolutionary Ladies
October is American Archives Month, a celebration of America’s history and the archivists, organizations and physical buildings that keep them safe and available to the world at large. Each week this month we’ll highlight a facet of how The Crowley Company partners with archivists and historians to help preserve and share American archives. In a previous blog, we detailed the factions of the National Society Daughters of the Revolution (NSDAR) and the many ways in which The Crowley Company has partnered to preserve…
Million Reel Inventory Complete: Microfilm Collections Assessed
In February, we blogged about the start of a massive microfilm assessment project undertaken by Crowley Imaging. Just six months later, on Friday, September 1st, the project has been successfully completed ahead of schedule and within budget. Here’s the story of the microfilm conversion. Crunching numbers Working as a subcontractor, Crowley Imaging employed seven staff under the direction of on-site project manager Larry DeMarchi to inventory more than 1.4 million reels of microfilm. The inventory included the contents of 126…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
Beauty is in the Eye of the Camera: Crowley Advances Imaging Services
What makes a “good” image? It is a universally acknowledged truth in our modern culture that good images are not blurry, have some sort of composition and do not have a finger in the shot (a fact never mentioned to my grandmother). While the subject matter and composition of a good image are often up for debate, the technical specifications are not, especially in regard to archival imaging services. Technical guidelines such as the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative (FADGI)…
Dear Mother: A Look at WWII Through the Eyes of One Family
Many stories of heroism and national pride are brought back from war. More often than not, the airwaves are filled with the loudest stories: soldiers bravely flying the skies, nurses fighting the needs of their own bodies to save others and great minds working to break enemy codes. The quieter stories of everyday life during wartime are often overlooked, but are just as heroic. Such is the case with the Minker family of Wilmington, Delaware. Their story is one told…