Crowley Company Scanners & Services Receive Platinum, Gold Modern Library Awards in 2017 Competition
Frederick, Md. – The Crowley Company, a worldwide leader in digital and analog scanning and capture solutions and services, is pleased to announce that for the third year running the firm has garnered several prestigious awards from the LibraryWorks, Inc. annual Modern Library Awards (MLA) program, which begin in 2015. The awards will be presented January 21st at the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in Atlanta, Ga.
Honored were: Crowley Imaging’s conversion services (Platinum/Service of the Year); the Zeutschel OS 14000 book scanner; the Zeutschel zeta book copy system; and the Crowley UScan+ universal film scanner.
About the program
According to LibraryWorks, the MLA’s were created to recognize the top products and services in the library industry in an unbiased format. Products and services are submitted via an application and are then posted to a private site with an enhanced description and attendant materials. These products are batched into small groups and sent to the LibraryWorks database of more than 80,000 librarians at public, K-12, academic and special libraries. Only customers having experience with the products or services submitted were permitted to judge, lending toward an unbiased score.
Each judge scored the product on a numeric basis from 1-10, with 10 high, on a series of questions regarding functionality, value and customer service.
Jennifer Newman, LibraryWorks associate publisher and MLA program manager reiterated her comments from the inaugural program saying “I was again thrilled with The Crowley Company’s excellent performance. Crowley is a huge name in archival preservation and records management and does it all from manufacturing and distribution to imaging services. Their consistency in the MLA awards reflects the consistency of their organization.”
A critical market
“As one of our major markets, we take the preservation needs of libraries very seriously,” explains Christopher Crowley, company president. “Librarians and library archivists are the primary end-users of our back-office archival preservation scanners and in-house service bureau, which they use to digitize special collections from a variety of media including books, newspapers, personal correspondence, photos and microfilm. Library patrons, with their rightful demands for advanced technology, have become a market-within-a-market as libraries purchase scanners to replace traditional copiers or reader-printers, allowing ‘walk-ups’ to view, save and/or email images digitally.”
Crowley continues, “The importance of libraries – and librarians – to our business can’t be overstated and it’s humbling that those who use these scanners felt them worthy of accolades at such high levels. It let us know we’re on the right track, one on which we continually strive to be.”
Added benefits to using scanners include the use of fewer consumables such as ink and toner, less staff time spent fixing paper jams and added life to the original materials, which are treated more gently on a scanner.
Crowley’s MLA Awards
In its first nomination, Crowley Imaging, Crowley’s in-house service bureau, was named Service of the Year and also received a Platinum award. Imaging services are used when an organization, such as a library, has collections to be digitized or written to microfilm and may not have the expertise, equipment or personnel to perform the service in-house. Library collections scanned by Crowley Imaging include Presidential papers, yearbook collections and everything in-between.
The Zeutschel OS 14000 is a three-time recipient, winning Platinum the past two years and gold in its first. Originally engineered to meet a U.S.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) request for proposal, the next generations of ILL-compatible OS 14000 scanners have become a staple to libraries that host special collections and which seek to both preserve the original materials electronically and give greater access to these materials via the internet. The OS 14000 is particularly gentle on bound and older materials and offers superior image quality for archival preservation. Watch the video.
First released in 2011, the Zeutschel zeta is also a multi-year honoree, this year taking Platinum 
after two years of being a Gold awardee. A walk-up scanner for students, researchers, staff and every day patrons, the zeta is a replacement for traditional copiers, bringing today’s technology into hundreds of U.S. and international libraries. View the most recent zeta video here.
The UScan+ Universal Film (UF) scanner series is a first-time winner in 2017, garnering a Gold award. The UScan+ is used by patrons to view images from microform, which includes microfilm, microfiche, aperture cards, photo negatives and slides – items often found in a library’s research, reading or special archives rooms. Patrons can save their selected images to USB or send them electronically through email, Dropbox™ and other popular programs. Watch the UScan+ in action here.
For more information about these and other Crowley scanners and services, visit www.thecrowleycompany.com
###
About The Crowley Company
The Crowley Company is a world leader in digital and analog film technologies and provides an extensive number of digital document and film conversion services to the library, academic, publishing, commercial, government and archive sectors. The company manufactures, distributes and services high-speed microfilm, microfiche, aperture card, book and document scanners, microfilm duplicators, film processors and micrographics equipment. Manufactured brands include Crowley, Mekel Technology, Wicks and Wilson, HF Processors and Extek Microsystems.
About LibraryWorks
LibraryWorks helps administrators to make informed decisions about library technology, automation and software, collection development and management, facilities and furnishings, staffing, purchasing, and other areas that drive effective strategic planning and day-to-day operations. The LibraryWorks resources help to identify best practices, monitor trends, evaluate new products and services, apply for grants and funding, post or find a job, and even enjoy some library humor.
About the Modern Library Awards program
The Modern Library Awards (MLAs) is a review program designed to recognize elite products and services in the market which can help library management personnel enhance the quality-of-experience for the library user and increase the performance of their library systems.