Posts Tagged ‘Scanning’
From Gunsight Cameras to Microfilm Scanners to Whatever’s Next: Mekel Technology plays on for nearly 50 years
You’re channel surfing and a movie catches your attention. You’ve missed the beginning but you pick up enough to be thoroughly engaged and end up watching the whole thing. Ever happen? That’s a good analogy for my journey with Mekel Technology (Mekel). I’ve worked at The Crowley Company for over a decade and know a fair amount about our Mekel product line, but I missed the beginning. With the advent of Mekel 2.0, the latest iteration of Mekel Technology scanner…
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…
Life in the Fast (Scanning) Lane: Digitizing History Rapidly with the UScan+
If there is one thing you can say about Kenneth Shelton, it is that he is passionate about history . . . specifically, the history of his family’s hometown in South Carolina. This was remarkably clear to me when I first read about the volunteer scanning work Ken has been doing for the Fairfield County South Carolina Museum and Historical Society. We’re celebrating American Archives Month by sharing the story of Ken’s digitization efforts and dedication to preserving the past….
Road Scanner, Part Two
Last week, we shared the story of Overland Conversion and their traveling Zeutschel OS 12000 overhead scanner. Weighing in at over 550 pounds when crated and needing a trailer for transport, the 12000-series does not easily fit the category of “portable.” And yet Chris Irelan and his firm have found a way to make quality imaging-on-the-go successful, traveling the states of Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri, and Arkansas. Curious about the concept of taking the large format scanner (affectionately nicknamed…
Speaking Greek in the Service Bureau
When I told my parents I wanted to join a sorority years back (the exact number a closely guarded secret), the response was swift: “Why?” Years later, I have occasion to pose the same question (with far less incredulity) to a few of the Greek letter organizations that have chosen to digitize their correspondence and photo collections with Crowley Imaging. It became quickly apparent that the answer is far more credible than my own had been. As Wikipedia aptly describes,…
OCR? ICR? IWR? OMG! Get the Most from Your Scanned Text
In celebration of last Friday’s National Handwriting Day, I decided to write a blog about Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Only when researching it for this blog did I discover that OCR actually has nothing to with handwriting, once again proving how little I really know about the vast imaging industry (despite the approach of my second anniversary with the company). It was then that I discovered ICR and IWR. More on that later. In layman’s terms (which is more my…
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…
From Google Alert to Dorothea Lange
As I reluctantly shook off the long weekend and dragged my cursor through Monday morning’s inbox, I was pleasantly surprised to see a Google Alert entitled “Fourth of July Celebrations from the 1870s to 1940” citing “Library of Congress, The Crowley Company/Dorothea Lange.” Getting an alert that actually applies is akin to getting a ‘real’ letter in the mail: you don’t know if you should open it first because it’s not junk or draw out the anticipation to later savor…
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…
Princeton’s Latin American Ephemera
Having celebrated Cinco de Mayo on Monday, we decided to raise our margaritas and toast Princeton’s Latin American Ephemera Collection. Crowley Imaging is currently under contract to scan and convert more than 100, 000 images from the collections, which are unparalleled in size and scope. As a result of this project, a vast portion that has so far remained uncatalogued, and therefore hidden from students and scholars, will soon become freely and widely available on the web. Short-lived…Forever The concept…