Posts Tagged ‘Digitization’
Going Digital: Sacramental Documents “Transfigured”
As much of the world prepares to celebrate Easter this Sunday, it seems a good week to feature an upcoming digitization project for downtown Baltimore’s Transfiguration Catholic Community: 88 precisely hand-written bound volumes which record the births, communions, confirmations and marriages of three city parishes dating back to 1842. Rev. Augustine Etemma Inwang, MSP (Father Augustine), pastor of the Transfiguration community, notes that the digitization of these registries is an effort to both preserve the records and to increase the…
Digitizing Presidential Collections for UVA Miller Center
The University of Virginia (UVA) Miller Center was recently awarded a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to digitize Presidential collections and make them available to the public online. Part of this grant provides the necessary funding to develop a website called Connecting Presidential Collections (CPC).[1] The CPC site is intended to become a central searchable repository for digitized Presidential collections. Already, the site hosts digitized images from over 80 collections. In addition to developing this site, the…
Confidentiality: When Privacy Gets in the Way of a Good Business Story
I hate secrets. I especially hate when someone tells me a secret. If I can’t talk about it, what good is it? By nature and by profession as Crowley’s Director of Communications, I am a sharer of information. So imagine my frustration when I find out that Crowley Imaging has just scanned _______ images (How many? Seriously?) of _______ (Are you kidding me?? These are the most amazing images I’ve ever seen!) for _______ (What do you mean I can’t…
Digitizing Decades of German Choral Notes
Crowley Imaging has had the opportunity to work with many remarkable organizations over its 30+ years in business. Not many of those, however, can boast award-winning singing talent. This past summer, we were able to preserve German culture and heritage by working with the Washington Saengerbund to digitize some of their historic records, including choral notes. History of the Saengerbund The Washington Saengerbund [1] is “the oldest German singing society in the Washington [D.C.] area.” Founded in 1851 by a group…
Digitization Discoveries: Uncovering a Skeleton at Penn
There are many reasons to digitize collections. Museums and archives primarily digitize for preservation purposes. Government entities and commercial institutions digitize for preservation and to improve records management functions. Libraries may digitize to provide enhanced media and online research access. What is often surprising about digitization projects are the hidden gems uncovered when bringing forgotten or misplaced materials to light. This is exactly the sort of unexpected revelation recently experienced by the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) Museum of Archaeology and…
Service Bureau Walkabout
In need of a little blog inspiration today, I went to the one location in our Frederick, Md. headquarters that always makes me happy – our Crowley Imaging service bureau. While I’m intrigued by the equipment, manufacturing and technical sides of our business, my artsy right brain loves taking the 26 steps from my desk to the threshold of our imaging division. That 27th step never fails to transport me from desk jockey to treasure hunter. The lights are always…
Quantum Happiness
Last week we received the kind of email every business wants to receive: a glowing review, a good tip and an idea for further engagement – the trifecta of customer response. A State Archivist wrote: “After framing the first fiche…in QuantumProcess, I used “Progogate this page” and since they [the images] were all shot the same, it took very minor tweaking to get the rest perfect. These machines are more flexible than I ever imagined. Is there an official forum…
Celebrating Independence; Remembering the Revolution
As we celebrate Independence Day this week, we appreciate that the 4th of July is more than an excuse for a three-day weekend (although it’s a plus). It’s a chance to celebrate the day we declared ourselves a free nation. There are several organizations such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of Colonial Wars and more who devote not just one day, but generations to memorializing the Revolutionary War and its role in shaping our country’s history. Crowley…
“Conventional data backup is not a preservation process”
Why the microfilm conversation continues A few days ago, I posted this comment to several relevant LinkedIn groups: “Interesting headline in USA Today, but misleading as the archives and records management industries agree that microfilm remains relevant as a preservation media.” The rest of the comment then pointed to a prior blogpost I’d written on why microfilm remains important today. The headline itself mentioned “a major fight over microfilm” when in fact the discord is over client base and not…
One Man. Wicks and Wilson Scanners. 26+ Million Newspaper Images
At Crowley, we love discovering great digital collections – especially when they’ve been scanned on our manufactured capture equipment. Even after more than 30 years, the idea of making images and information from the past available to records managers, archivists, researchers, students and history junkies today and in the future is exciting. When we saw this reason.tv feature on long-time Wicks and Wilson client, Tom Tryniski, and his astonishing 26 million+ newspaper images scanned, we just had to dig…