Historical Document Scanning & Preservation Services
Our expert team at eRecordsUSA specializes in the high-quality digitization of rare historical documents, ensuring their preservation and accessibility for future generations.
Historical document scanning, or historical document imaging, is the process of converting printed historical documents into digital files. The number of documents that need to be scanned and archived is enormous, yet the costs associated with running a scanning department can be too high for many institutions that wish to digitize their collections.
In the past, scanning historical documents may have been performed from photographs. However, today, there are many ways to digitize historical documents. Some of these include using optical character recognition software, barcode scanning and OCR (Optical Character Recognition), or converting paper documents into word processing files for conversion into digital images.
The idea of preserving historical documents by scanning them into digital format has become an important part of the project management process. This can be accomplished through various methods and in various ways to ensure that our digital copies are as accurate as possible.
Preserving Fragile & Rare Collections – Challenges & Practices
Preserving fragile and rare historical documents presents unique challenges that require precision, expertise, and the right technology. At eRecordsUSA, we understand the critical importance of maintaining the integrity of these invaluable collections. With over a decade of experience and a range of professional digitizing equipment, we specialize in the preservation of historical documents through meticulous scanning and digitization processes. Our services are particularly tailored to clients in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, and we are capable of handling projects of any size and complexity.
What Is Historical Document Scanning And Digitization?
Original historical documents are irreplaceable and valuable. For years, libraries and government offices struggle to physically archive them. Scanning and digitizing these precious records help in protecting and circulateing them. In most cases, historical documents, records, and texts are old and fragile. Scanning and digitizing these old documents is essential to capture and preserve the history and information they contain.
Rare Books, written records / documents, old pictures, official documents, and architectural drawings are considered historical documents. From ancient times, libraries have been preserving physical copies of historical documents. The preservation cost is too high. Moreover, there is a high risk of damage. The historical document scanning process is not only used to scan the old documents records but also edits and repairs the damaged document to get a clear scanned image.
At eRecordsUSA, we use image-enhancing, repairing, and editing tools to provide a quality digital copy of historical documents. This way, we help the libraries to circulate the old or rare documents by converting them into digital formats. These digital formats help in creating digital libraries using templates.
Digitization Of Historical Documents – Our Process
Our digitization process involves three key stages:
Stage 1: Preparation And Scanning
The process starts with preparing the documents to scan by checking their readability condition. If it’s good then using a high-quality scanner, careful scanning of each document is done. Resolution, lighting, and accuracy are important factors o consider while scanning each page.
Historical documents are available in different sizes. Large format items such as maps and legal documents are placed on specialty flatbed scanners.
After scanning, the images are carefully inspected and quality assured.
eRecordsUSA has a setup that can quickly review the scanned images. If any page gets missing or torn or stuck, the cameras can detect that and you get an immediate notification. That’s our differentiator.
We can precisely and accurately create quality scanned images After the scan is complete, the scanned documents are checked again especially vintage photos and maps (large formats) sometimes need editing and image enhancement.
Stage 2: Cleanup And Digitization
If the images are not clear, the cleanup process starts. It includes editing and image licensing using advanced tools. Sometimes, you need to enlarge historical documents to get a clear scanned image. After the cleanup process is complete. the scanned documents are stored in digital formats by adjusting the size, visibility, and resolution
Stage3: OCR Extraction Of Text
Sometimes historical documents contain valuable text and information that needs preservation. Data security becomes important in such cases. An advanced OCR scanner is used to extract the information from historical documents and then preserved it.
OCR scanners recognize low-confidence characters to highlight them to get a clear image. Sometimes a project requires additional checking, or even word-by-word proofing, which can be done on multiple levels. However, for historical document scanning, simple OCR scanning is a preferred technique. It saves the cost of proofreading the scanned data again and again
Historical Document Scanning With eRecordsUSA
With great care, experience, and highly specialized equipment, we provide high-quality digitization of documents. With proven expertise, we have completed numerous historical document scanning projects. eRecordsUSA is an ISO/ISMS Certified Women-owned San Francisco Document Scanning and Imaging Company.
We have modern scanners to capture and archive historical documents at the highest possible quality. We have completed complex historical documentation projects having the most fragile of texts. New techniques like OCR scanning of historical documents help to extract information from valuable documents and make them accessible online. This helps in indexing and digitizing historical documents easily.
Our state-of-the-art facility has all of the necessary security measures to ensure your precious documents are safe. We provide historical document scanning & digitizing services with budget-friendly options. Special offers are given for bulk scanning projects. Custom scanning of historical documents including large formats is our expertise.
Special Offers and Bulk Scanning Projects
We offer budget-friendly options and special offers for bulk scanning projects, making it easier for libraries, government offices, and other institutions to digitize their collections. Our expertise in custom scanning of historical documents, including large formats, ensures that we can handle even the most complex projects with ease.
Contact Us
Preserve the integrity and accessibility of your historical documents with eRecordsUSA’s expert scanning and digitization services. Contact us today to discuss your project needs and discover how our customized solutions can help you preserve the historical value of your documents.
Would you like to receive a free quote for a Bulk Document Scanning Service? Call us at (510) 900-8800 or email us at [email protected].
eRecordsUSA – Your trusted partner for Historical Document Scanning & Preservation and Historical and Rare Book Digitization Services in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.
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What Our Client Says
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Mr. Sharma is very professional and friendly. We had eRecords scan our books for archive purposes. The quality of their service is amazing. They are fast and timely. I am very glad that we used eRecords to scan our books and wouldn't hesitate to contact eRecords if we need digitizing/imaging service in the future. Esther L.
12/19/2023 - eRecords has provided an amazing high quality scanning work for our books. Mr. Sharma is very detail oriented and the results are just excellent! Eliana D.
12/12/2023 - I contacted eRecords for a small-scale scanning job. Although they usually work on large projects, Pankaj was more than willing to help with what I was looking for! The scans that came back were high quality, and delivered in a timely matter. eRecords was also the business that quoted me the most competitive price. I would definitely recommend - Pankaj is knowledgable and a great collaborator to work with on meeting any scanning service you may need. Nina P.
3/23/2023 - ERecords USA has provided Fast, Timely, and Amazing quality service for scanning my books and magazines. Ritika, Pankaj, and their Staff are very friendly, flexible, and easy to work with. They go above and beyond in their service. I give them A+++. Rahul P.
2/28/2023 - I have used eRecordsUSA on three separate occasions and each job was performed exceptionally. All files scanned at high resolution, organized, and returned in a timely manner. Pricing was also very reasonable for such time-intensive work. Management was also very good with their communication.
I am a digital nomad that owns zero paper, so having all of my files in Google Drive is imperative. With Google's OCR (Optical Coherence Recognition) I can now find my files at lightning speed. ie - I search for [deed], [roof repair], [assessment], etc. and all relevant files "automagically" appear. Cameron V.
12/09/2022 - EXCELLENT quality work. VERY professional. I had some kids art work scanned high resolution that was too large for the scanners at copy shops. eRecordsUSA did a fantastic job and I highly recommend them. Stephen M.
11/02/2021 - ERecords USA provided a fast and accurate turnaround for a request to duplicate X-Rays. They ensured that copies were accurate prior to payment and went out of their way to produce within a short time. Beth S.
4/21/2021 - Erecords scanned 56 bankers boxes of legal case files and other professional documents for me. This was a particularly difficult and complex job because, in naming files, they had to work from both a written file inventory and the file names on the folders themselves and use a consistent file naming protocol that Erecords and I agreed upon. They did an outstanding job of following this file naming protocol and organizing the documents in digital form to create the file structure that I intended. This job was also difficult because of the variety of page sizes and the age and condition of some of the documents; they managed to accurately capture everything. They also made the job easier for me by picking the documents up at my home. Pankaj at E records was invariably courteous and helpful and spent the time needed with me before the job to develop a digital file structure to make the documents most useful. I highly recommend Erecords for document scanning. David L.
2/27/2021 - I chose eRecords to scan over 2000 pages of yearbooks and several hundred photos from the early 90's to early 00's. I was not disappointed. They were one of the few locations in the Bay Area that I contacted that let me drop off and pickup the material in person. The JPG and PDF scans that they sent me were extremely high quality and OCR'd the yearbooks so I can search for text. They were able to repair one of my yearbook's bindings to the point where I couldn't even find the repair! This place is professional and good value for what I received. If something ever happened to my irreplaceable yearbooks and photos I know they're digitized now and backed up to multiple locations on my network and cloud! Highly recommended, Pankaj and eRecords! David B.
10/28/2020 - I found eRecordsUSA on an internet search and contacted them to inquire about scanning to PDFs a set of some six hundred old, faded, tattered pages of an underground/community newspaper I co-founded fifty years ago. I lucked out on this first call, finding a most professional, efficient, accessible, top notch company to help me archive my newspaper despite these trying, pandemic times. Ted R.
7/14/2020
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