Public Libraries Benefit from Innovative Document Imaging Preservation Services
New Brunswick, NJ (PRWEB) May 01, 2015 -- Digital Memory Media, a subsidiary of Innovative Digital Imaging (IDI), maintains a state-of-the-art digital imaging facility in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Libraries with limited space have many projects which can benefit from digitization, and IDI has signed up some of its New Jersey library neighbors for recent projects.
Haddonfield Library has a contract to digitize 100,000 documents containing the town of Haddonfield’s real estate records including color and black and white photos of the individual homes. The project was completed at the end of January.
In December 2014, The Waldwick Public Library contracted with IDI to digitize its local history consisting of yearbooks and scrapbooks. The project was completed in four weeks and IDI also hosts the library Digit-Find-It web portal for browsing and key word searches across its collection. The portal will be linked to the Waldwick Public Library website.
Both Westfield and Cranford Public Libraries have individually contracted with IDI to host their local history content on the Digit-Find-It portal. The collections consist of yearbooks, city directories, oral histories (converted by Digital Memory Media from cassettes) and local newspapers including the Westfield Leader and the Cranford Chronicle.
Joyce Nencetti of Suffern, NY said "We received an enthusiastic response from our community when we offered them the opportunity to digitize and preserve their treasured memories. It was a great fundraiser for our Library."
The public library projects are just one example of how modern digitization capabilities can be of service to individual communities. On a larger scale, IDI has completed some huge digitization projects. The company has successfully completed the Stage II scanning of the Gilder Lehrman Collection for Adam Mathews Publishing at the New York Historical Society. The full collection consists of over 300,000 images and is considered one of the great archives of American history. It contains some of the country’s most important historical documents such as one of the original twelve copies of the signed Declaration of Independence and the original Emancipation Proclamation. A one-half hour documentary on the project is available on the Innovative Document Imaging web site http://www.idiimage.com and the Adam Mathews web site http://www.amdigital.co.uk/m-collections/collection/american-history-1493-1945/.
The availability of this material is an invaluable resource for teaching courses on American history and as a platform for undergraduate essay work and postgraduate research. The amount of work which has gone into the digitized preservation of these records is amazing. The technology making the preservation possible is equally amazing and has easily available application to the photos, letters, videos and mementos that are forming Twenty-First Century history.
Many people do not realize how much photographs and videotapes deteriorate. Because of the chemical makeup and the development process for photographs, deterioration is expected through the years. Videotapes lose their magnetic signal over time as the binder holding the magnetic particles to the polyester base decays. The friction between the VCR head and tape causes the quality and color to deteriorate. The tape grows brittle and eventually breaks. The same technology used in making sure the Gilder Lehman Collection survives for use by students, researchers and history buffs can make sure the record of birthday parties, high school musicals, weddings and other personal events will still be around for future generations to enjoy.
Customers across the United States and around the world are using the services of Innovative Document Imaging to digitize their important memories. For more information, visit http://www.idiimage.com.
Stefano Grossi, Digital Memory Media, http://www.dmmem.com, +1 4045124909, [email protected]
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