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Seattle, WA – February
14, 2007 – Frederick, Maryland-based Crowley Micrographics, Inc., recognized
for its high-quality, digital book and newspaper scanning services, has
completed the digitization of more than two million pages of historical
newspapers from small towns across the country. Seattle-based
SmallTownPapers, Inc. selected Crowley for this project which makes millions
of small-town newspaper pages online-accessible and searchable for the first
time.
Before the launch of this project, most of the weekly newspapers, dating
back as far as the 1800s, had been inaccessible to the more than 35 million
Americans who, according to Pew Internet and American Life Project, research
their family and community history online each year.
“Not only can I now view and search small town newspapers but the images are
perfectly clear and the pages are presented just as the newspaper was
printed which enhances my ability to research and document family history,”
said Adam Deason, a Murray, Utah native and family historian with roots in a
small town in the southern US.
Unlike America’s larger daily newspapers, weekly papers from small towns
rarely could afford to microfilm their editions. Today, while most newspaper
archives can be accessed online or through local libraries, thousands of
small-town newspapers have their archives confined to a single, delicate
issue kept in a bound volume in the newspaper office. Searching for
information is complicated and time-consuming. Working with Crowley
Micrographics, SmallTownPapers provides publishers with a safe and
high-quality option for preserving and making the papers online accessible.
“We frequently have customers come into our office searching old papers for
genealogy-related information, historical research and obituaries, and then
wanting to make photocopies from these large bound volumes of books;
however, our books are becoming faded and fragile due to everyday wear and
age and are not suitable for copying,” said Cara Young from Charles Town,
West Virginia’s Spirit of Jefferson Farmer’s Advocate newspaper which has
archives going back to the early 1900s. “I found that after having the
newspapers scanned, especially the older ones, the quality of the images is
clear and easy to read, and customers can now visit the website, find what
they’re looking for and print out the information in their own home without
having to handle the aging books.”
Young, like many publishers, is pleased to discover that the bound books
were carefully handled and safely returned to her after the scanning process
was complete. That is largely why Crowley was selected for this project – it
is a recognized leader in the field of bound book and large format scanning.
Now past the two million mark, Crowley embarks on the next phase of this
newspaper project. SmallTownPapers has an archive of more than 20 million
newspaper pages with that number expected to significantly increase.
“This project would not be where it is today without Crowley,” said
SmallTownPapers president Paul Jeffko. “They have earned the respect of our
publishers who feel confident sending their one-of-a-kind materials to
Crowley. That confidence is translating into tremendous growth for
SmallTownPapers.”
“We expect our success with the first two million pages to spur growth
beyond our initial expectations to as many as 40 million pages in the next
few years,” Jeffko added.
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Contact: Karen Tarica – 206-369-0855 –
karent@smalltownpapers.com
About SmallTownPapers®
SmallTownPapers is an online gateway to newspapers from small-town America —
past and present. Working with publishers from across the country, the
company digitally scans current and archived newspapers and then provides
online access. Through the SmallTownPapers website, the newspaper archives
can be searched by keyword or phrase and viewed as originally printed.
SmallTownPapers, Inc. is based in Seattle, WA. For more information visit
www.smalltownpapers.com.
About Crowley Micrographics, Inc.
Crowley Micrographics is a 25 year old company that provides leading-edge
document conversion and reformatting systems to libraries, archives, local
government agencies and commercial clients. Crowley Micrographics'
conversion services include archival preservation microfilming, digital
document imaging, document and image reformatting, microfilm and microfiche
digitizing and the sales and support of hardware and software solutions for
advanced document conversion requirements.
www.crowleymicrographics.com.
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National Newspaper Association
Washington Newspaper Publishers Association