Contex, a global provider in large format scanning, recently announced a new case study about the Ontario-based Thunder Bay museum and its newspaper archiving initiative. By replacing a photocopier with a Contex IQ FLEX flatbed large format scanner, the Thunder Bay Museum is building its digital archive of newspapers faster, and with better quality, than ever before
“The Contex scanner is user-friendly. I’m surprised that the learning curve is not steep. The scanner does what it needs to do. The presets make it easy,” comments Michael deJong, curator and archivist, Thunder Bay Museum.
The Thunder Bay Museum in Canada offers visitors several galleries of local, regional, and national heritage dating back to the 1800s. The Museum’s exhibits depict the early years of Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario, as well as works by local artists and craftspeople. Preserving the museum’s history is paramount, and its newspaper archive was a priority.
For over two decades, the Thunder Bay Museum preserved its newspaper archive using a common office tool: a photocopier. It functioned to a degree, but the staffers knew it wasn’t an ideal solution. The quality was low, and the speed slowed down the archiving process for its team of volunteers.
Thunder Bay Museum is able to build its digital archive faster, and with better quality, than ever before. By reducing the scanning time, its team of volunteers can process more newspapers for museum visitors and researchers to easily access.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
