March International Technology Conference Ideal Forum for Crowley Scan Systems

Frederick, Md. – Beginning March 16, 2015, The Crowley Company will exhibit a full line of scanners and microfilm retrieval systems at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany, the world’s largest trade fair showcasing digital IT and telecommunications solutions. “For years,” says Christopher Crowley, The Crowley Company president, “CeBIT has offered U.S. firms a great forum to introduce products to an international audience. With a Crowley branch in the United Kingdom and a large international reseller base, CeBIT has become increasingly important to us. It not only offers the chance to demonstrate scanners, but the opportunity for face-to-face meetings with our resellers and European partners.”

Of particular note this year is the IMAGELINK-brand i7380 reference archive scanner, which debuted at CeBIT last year. The successor to KODAK’s discontinued but still popular i7300, the IMAGELINK i7380, built for 16mm microfilm blip retrieval, reverses the inefficient aspects of traditional microfilm search by offering quick view times, multiple output/delivery options and work-saving functionality. The touchscreen system has an easy-to-use interface that allows for single, multiple or full-roll images. “For many industries and agencies that keep records on microfilm – such as insurance, financial, real estate or government offices – the i7380 is a bridge between the analog and digital worlds,” says Crowley. “Say someone is searching for an old pension record. They pop in the microfilm cassette, type in the blip number and the i7380 goes directly to the image or images required. The operator then has several options – they can save or export the image digitally to any number of output formats – including the cloud – or print it.” He continues, “In many cases, even though access to microfilm records is required, it’s just not financially feasible to digitize an entire library of microfilm. The i7380 provides a solution that is more affordable and current with today’s technology.”

Also introduced last year as a concept and now in pre-release is Crowley’s online image retrieval solution, IMAGEhost. This cloud-based system allows users to access their scanned microfilm in its original strip format from network, desktop, laptop, tablet or smart phone via the internet. Using technology that draws from Crowley’s industry-leading Wicks and Wilson and Mekel Technology manufactured brands, IMAGEhost operates from a cross-brand platform that allows owners of images scanned from either brand to view, print, save or send images from their workstation, home or the road. Working from three key components – access to film repositories, an indexed database and custom software – IMAGEhost maximizes initial capture investment by offering maximum image exposure to a network, client or patron base.

Pat Crowley, vice president of The Crowley Company, explains that IMAGEhost “has been created to give our clients with smaller collections, and perhaps even smaller budgets, an option to easily access and share their digitized collections. For a reasonable monthly fee, they will gain a password-protected portal to their microfilm from which a viewer can save or share individual or groups of images. For many organizations, access is a long-term goal which is not easily attainable due to the cost of the IT infrastructure and the program management that would be required. By eliminating the need for the client to host and share their images, Crowley is able to eliminate a significant investment.” The images are searchable by frame, or – if the film has been processed through an optical character recognition (OCR) program – by keyword. Pat Crowley continues, “In addition to providing an access option to smaller clients, this may also be a portal for those with large volumes of digitized microfilm. There are times when a client has many images, but low retrieval requirements and it doesn’t make financial sense for an institution to host the images themselves.”

InoTec, Mekel Technology, Wicks and Wilson and Zeutschel systems on display
Also available for demonstration in Hall 3, Booth G30 will be the following scanners:

• Mekel MACH 12 and Wicks and Wilson 8850 microfilm scanners. Manufactured by The Crowley’s Mekel Technology and Wicks and Wilson divisions respectively, these high-speed, high image quality production scanners account for more than 80% of the world’s microfilm scanners for high-volume and archival settings.
• MACH 7 and Wicks and Wilson 7750 microfiche scanners. Both are world leaders for their image quality and high throughput.
• Wicks and Wilson C-Drive X and C400 aperture card scanners, for affordable, quality-image single and batch scanning of aperture card scanners
• Crowley’s UScan+ Universal Film scanner, the latest generation scanner for reading, saving, sharing and digitizing any type of microfilm (microfilm, microfiche, aperture cards, photo negatives and more). Primarily used by library patrons and businesses with wide varieties of microform to access, the UScan+ is also sold worldwide as the Mekel MACH2+, the Zeutschel delta+ and the Genus Ozaphan+. It is also resold by Konica Minolta Business Systems U.S.A. and a long list of North American resellers.
• Zeutschel simple-to-use zeta patron book copy system

About CeBIT

CeBIT is the world’s largest trade fair showcasing digital IT and telecommunications solutions for home and work environments and will take place March 16-20 in Hannover, Germany. The key target groups are users from industry, the wholesale/retail sector, skilled trades, banks, the services sector, government agencies, science and all users passionate about technology.

CeBIT offers an international platform for comparing notes on current industry trends, networking, and product presentations. Deutsche Messe AG has organized CeBIT in Hannover each spring since 1986.