Preservica and Backstage Library Works announce partnership to support government agencies enhancing access to or replacing microfilm through digitization and Digital Preservation

Oxford, UK, Boston, MA, Bethlehem, PA, Provo, UT/ March 23, 2023 / Preservica, a global leader in Active Digital Preservation archiving, and Backstage Library Works, a leading library services provider for digitization, metadata, onsite services and more - announced today a partnership as part of Preservica’s Digitize Once. Preserve Forever initiative. The partnership will focus initially on supporting government agencies looking to enhance access to or provide an alternative preservation method beyond their microfilm collections through digitization and Digital Preservation.

Preservica’s cloud-hosted ADP software is already trusted and used by 25 US state archives and a growing community of County and City records centers to preserve, protect and provide greater access to long-term and permanent digital records (both born-digital and digitized).

Pilot Program Launched to Digitize and Digitally Preserve Government Records on Microfilm

Government agencies have relied on microfilm as the preservation standard for archiving critical, long-term information for years and many local, state and federal agencies must comply with legal mandates related to the use of microfilm. But the digital age has impacted the expectations of users, both internal and external across a broader geographic region, who need secure access to records and information from anywhere.

“Backstage’s expertise and experience with digitizing all formats, but in particular microfilm, ensures that the digital conversion process will be trustworthy and high quality,” shared Mike Quinn, CEO of Preservica. “Preservica’s Digital Preservation technology, which protects digital content and ensures formats used today are still accessible decades from now, presents a viable alternative to microfilm. We look forward to working together and with government agencies that want to digitize and digitally preserve their microfilm to better meet the needs of their constituents.”

Preservica and Backstage are kicking off their partnership with a Pilot Program. The partners are specifically seeking government agencies with microfilmed meeting minutes minutes that are looking to build a case for larger scale microfilm digitization. Other types of records will be considered as well. The digitization process will also include OCR and the capture of a selection of metadata fields to enhance discoverability of the digitized content in Preservica.

“Sampling a selection of microfilmed content will allow Backstage and Preservica to standardize and streamline our joint offering so that we can provide government agencies the proof they need to move forward with digitizing microfilm and so we can offer the program at scale,” shared Kelly Barrell, VP of Digitization Services at Backstage Library Works.

The Pilot Program will include:

• Digitization of up to 10,000 images (approximately 8-10 reels) from 35mm microfilm
• OCR output as well as metadata enhancement to enable discovery of microfilmed content with keyword searching in Preservica
• One-year, renewable subscription to a Preservica Starter Plus account.

Agencies interested in the Preservica and Backstage Pilot Program can register their interest at info@preservica.com or at info@bslw.com.

Two vendors – one streamlined service

Backstage Library Works has offices in Provo, Utah and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and has been working as a library service provider for over 35 years. The company offers an array of customizable services that help libraries, government agencies, and other types of organizations preserve and make their collections accessible to more people. Backstage’s service divisions include Archival, Automation, On-site, Digitization and Metadata. The company also has a Microfilm division and has expertise on microfilm duplication as well as filming original microfilm.

“We are excited to announce our partnership with Preservica,” shared Nate Cothran, President of Backstage Library Works. “This collaboration will enable us to offer our clients access to cutting-edge technology and innovative services that will enhance their library experience and support their information needs. We believe that digitization is not only a trend but a necessity for libraries in the 21^st century, and we are committed to helping them achieve their goals together.”

Through the partnership with Preservica, the Backstage team will digitize microfilm and support metadata capture based on a selection of metadata fields that Preservica’s industry application team is templating to ensure digitized images can be easily found in the Preservica system. Backstage will also ingest their work into the Preservica instance on the customer’s behalf. Ongoing system support and other onboarding services will be managed by Preservica.

“We are so pleased to partner with Backstage Library Works as part of our – Digitize Once. Preserve Forever initiative,” shared Mike Quinn, CEO of Preservica. “Their expertise across so many areas of the library but, in particular - microfilm, digitization and metadata enhancement - makes them an ideal partner for this work to help government agencies digitize their microfilm and protect that investment by ingesting their collections into Preservica’s Digital Preservation technology.”

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About Preservica

Preservica is transforming the way organisations around the world protect and future-proof critical long-term digital information. Available in the cloud (SaaS) or on-premise, our award-winning Active Digital Preservation software has been designed from the ground up to tackle the unique challenges of ensuring digital information remains accessible and trustworthy over decades.

It's a proven solution that's trusted by thousands of businesses, archives, libraries, museums and government organisations around the world, including the UK National Archives, Texas State Library and Archives, MoMA, Yale and HSBC.

About Backstage Library Works

For over 35 years, Backstage Library Works has been supporting organizations across the globe, both large and small, with specialized services such as Microfilm preservation, digitization, metadata, automation, on-site projects, and archiving. The company’s breadth and depth of experience in the library community provides a unique array of expertise, positioning us as the ultimate partner for institutions looking to preserve the historic, artistic, monetary and creative value of their library collections. Stay up-to-date on Backstage Library Works news on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.