Author Archive
The Down Low on TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), Part 2
In last week’s blog, we set forth the premise that not all scanners are created equal. There is much more to consider at purchase than the quoted price. After more than three decades of selling and manufacturing digital and analog imaging systems, The Crowley Company has developed a three-point system for clients to discover the true cost of hardware ownership: accuracy, productivity and the true total cost. We discussed accuracy – how well the scanner or equipment performs to…
The Down Low on TCO (True Cost of Ownership) Part 1
In more than thirty years of demonstrating production-level digital scanners and analog equipment to clients worldwide, Crowley has found that one fact has remained constant: comparisons are very rarely apples-to-apples. Once the client need has been clarified (fodder for another blog), there are often multiple scanner options available. Sometimes they’re ours. Sometimes they’re not. Always, though, we encourage prospective buyers to consider the true cost of owning a scanner – including the hidden variables – just as you would…
The Growing Use of Patron Scanners
Patron scanners, like the Zeutschel OS 12000 Bookcopy, the Zeutschel zeta and Wicks and Wilson UScan, are growing in popularity for many reasons. These scanners provide users an easy-to-operate walk-up experience – similar to that of a paper copier or microfilm reader/printer– but one that offers higher technology, lower maintenance, more features, media protection via gentle handling functionality and green benefits. Patron scanners, or “on-demand” scanners as they are called in the industry, are increasingly found in academic libraries, records/vital…
Can We Get a Resolution? Taking a Closer Look at Image Quality and DPI
Last week, in our blog, “Can We Get A Resolution? The mystery of the “right” DPI/PPI,” we explored the question, “What is the Right dpi/ppi?” The bottom line is that dpi/ppi is not “one size fits all.” As Christopher Crowley, our company president noted, “the right dpi/ppi is really a balancing act between the expected end use of the file (archival vs. non), the cost of file storage, the cost of bandwidth to share/transmit files, the cost of equipment to…
Can We Get a Resolution? The mystery of the “right” DPI/PPI.
In our previous blog, we spoke about the continued importance of microfilm in the battle to preserve our most important documents, books and other archives and records. Now we’ll focus on another facet of the preservation equation: resolution. Specifically, “What is the Right DPI/PPI?” To be fair, you won’t find a definitive or unanimous answer anywhere. However, we’ve recently read an excellent blog post by The United States Library of Congress (LOC), which got us thinking about our own experiences…
The Continued Importance of Microfilm
The Story Behind Microfilm We are a society built on the blood, sweat and tears of the previous generation. Everything we have now can be traced back to our ancestors: our government, our technology, our language and so much more. We constantly build on the work of the previous generation. And we learned long ago that an oral tradition could only take us so far. In order to truly thrive, society needed a better form of preservation. Thus, the written…