Posts Tagged ‘Scanners’
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…
30 (Days); 9 (Industries); One (Chance to Win): A Month in Crowley Scanner Sales
In our little corner of the blogosphere, we love to “zoom in” on a single client’s hardware or imaging services digitization journey. Rarely do we “zoom out” and look at the various vertical markets that make up Crowley’s diverse client base. Each scanning story we’ve told so far is a tile in the larger mosaic of Crowley’s vast market reach. If I give the complete rundown of four decades of Crowley sales, this blog will be 17 pages long and I’ll lose my…
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…
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…
Old Media in a New Age: Newspapers Go Digital in Latest Case Study
Newspapers have great significance in modern societies around the world. Their thin pages have distributed our world’s heaviest news – the sinking of the Titanic, Kennedy’s assassination, September 11th – and have also followed slightly lighter stories such as the discovery of Big Foot (originally reported in 1858 as “wild people”). Either way, newspapers have been and will continue to be a gateway into today and a crucial key to the past. From the humble origins of handwritten newsletters distributed…
Staying Power: A Conversation with The Crowley’s
The following blog post is an article published last month in IDMi Magazine. When one considers the changes in technology in the analog and digital imaging industries over the past four decades, it seems nearly impossible that a small firm has been able to survive – and thrive – while remaining an independent entity in a very narrow, niche market. Yet for 36 years, The Crowley Company has been a staple in the worlds of archival preservation, digitization and records…
Scanner Replacements: When Is The Time?
With many items, it’s easy to tell when it’s time to upgrade. Car, dryer, hot water heater…each has its own death knell “clunk” that results in a cash register “ching.” Other items, particularly those steeped in technology – phone, computer, cable services – lead to a war of want vs. need. Do we want the latest or do we need the latest? This same dilemma faces owners of front end capture systems that may still be serviceable, but which are…
Out of the Shop and Into The Office
It was 2014 when I first walked through The Crowley Company’s doors. I had a feeling then that this place would become an important one for me, but I couldn’t have predicted the impact it would have on my understanding of myself and the world. As I leave the Technical Service Department to join the marketing team I look back on my initiation into the world of preservation and my subsequent evolution. I began as an intern in the marketing…
Farewell Dan (for now)
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Dan James for seven years, albeit in five minute increments. A night shift supervisor and microfilm specialist with Crowley Imaging, Dan, clad in his signature plaid flannel shirt, makes a quick round to lock the doors every evening around 6 p.m. On those nights I’m still at my desk, he’ll pop his head in to say hello. Dan is retiring next Wednesday and I will miss both the feeling of security knowing he’s in the…