Crowley Imaging Goes Hollywood with West Coast Imaging Facility

Service Bureau
Crowley Imaging’s new California-based facility will give greater peace of mind to West Coast clients seeking Crowley’s expertise in the digitization of documents, books, graphic arts and microfilm archives and records.

Well, technically we’re 34 miles west, but that’s still pretty darn close to Tinseltown. The fact is that with this week’s asset acquisition of Integrated Scanning of America (ISA), a respected California scanning bureau, Crowley Imaging now has an imaging facility to serve clients in the western United States.  And that’s good news all around.

What exactly is a service bureau?

Those in the archive preservation and records management industries understand that a service bureau in our industry is descriptive of an organization that converts documents, books, graphic arts or microfilm (in all its formats) into digital images. A few bureaus, such as Crowley Imaging, which is headquartered in Frederick, Maryland, also offer analog services or the conversion of digital images to microfilm (read here to see why this is a viable option today). Other terms for a service bureau and its offerings may be “scanning bureau,” “imaging services,” “conversion bureau” or “conversion services.” No matter the name, at the core we scan, duplicate or process images of all types.

Why the West Coast?

A great majority of items scanned are truly one of a kind. These can include yearbooks, newspaper archives, personal diaries, manuscripts, museum or personal collections, government and corporate records, photographs, deed books…and much more. As specialists in archival digitization and high-volume projects, many of the items Crowley Imaging scans are fragile and date back hundreds of years. Shipping across country could either be dangerous to the media or – on the production side – so high in quantity that transportation is simply not cost-effective.  To have a service bureau on the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts allows us to offer a new degree of security and efficiency to potential West Coast clients. To read about the types of collections we scan, click here for case studies or here for recent project blogs.

Why ISA?

Expansion to the West Coast has been long considered for Crowley Imaging, which has been in operation since 1986. As with all business decisions, timing, economy and opportunity had to be in alignment. ISA, headed by Manuel Bulwa, who has a long career in the preservation industry and is truly an imaging expert, shares similar operational and business philosophies with Crowley Imaging in the West. The opportunity to join forces under the Crowley umbrella of companies means that we can quickly offer conversion services knowing that image quality and customer care standards are high. Additionally, the facility is in close proximity to our Crowley’s Mekel Technology manufacturing facility in San Dimas, Ca.

To read the full press release, click here.

The future looks bright

With a melding of location, experience and resources, Crowley Imaging looks forward to offering archivists and records managers a West Coast option and to working with Manuel and his staff to grow our California-based conversion services. If you’d like more information or to receive a quote on conversion services, please contact us at (240) 215-0224 or email us at [email protected].

General inquiries can be emailed to [email protected]. You can also follow The Crowley Company on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Cheri BakerCheri Baker, Crowley’s former Director of Communications, has retired but retains her love for writing and all things Crowley. With a career that spans newspaper, agency and corporate communications, her goal remains to dig behind the scenes and tell the story - whatever it may be. Find Cheri Baker on LinkedIn+


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