Historical Document Scanning & Preservation Services
Our expert team at eRecordsUSA specializes in the high-quality digitization of rare historical documents, ensuring their preservation and accessibility for future generations.
Historical document scanning, or historical document imaging, is the process of converting printed historical documents into digital files.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In the past, scanning historical documents may have been performed from photographs. However, today, there are many ways to digitize historical documents.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The idea of preserving historical documents by scanning them into digital format has become an important part of the project management process.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Preserving fragile and rare historical documents presents unique challenges that require precision, expertise, and the right technology.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With over a decade of experience and a range of professional digitizing equipment, we specialize in the preservation of historical documents through meticulous scanning and digitization processes.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What Is Historical Document Scanning And Digitization?
Original historical documents are irreplaceable and valuable.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 In most cases, historical documents, records, and texts are old and fragile.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 hello@erecordsusa.com.
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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needed one personal journal scanned - they were super responsive and did a great job of it! Galina T.
5/10/2025 - I contacted the eRecordsUSA team for a project scanning several dozen journals. I was a little nervous at first about shipping irreplaceable personal records for someone else to handle, but from the first call with Pankaj it was clear I was in excellent hands. From start to finish I've never experienced such thoughtful, responsive customer service, and the final color scans I received are sharp, accurate, and perfectly organized. I am thrilled to have over a decade of journals scanned and preserved so beautifully. eRecordsUSA will be my first call for any future digitizing needs. Jenny G.
4/23/2025 - Excellent digitization services! Swift email replies to any questions (usually within hours if not minutes).
My three 300+ page hardback books were very professionally scanned into PDFs and they look stunning! Joshua B.
4/10/2025 - Pankaj and crew at eRecordsUSA did a beautiful job making scans of our old family archives that span four generations. Now I have thousands of neatly organized .pdf files with crisp & clear scans of my family's handwritten letters, photos, slides, and fragile documents from 100 years ago. I've been daydreaming about this project for over a decade, and I'm very grateful to now have it so successfully completed. Brian S.
2/25/2025 - I had an unusual requirement that involved scanning a 4' by 8' document on a roll. The staff did an excellent job capturing all the information, using several approaches to ensure the best reproduction. I'm grateful for the time the staff took to explain the options. I'm very pleased with the result. Lawrence I.
1/28/2025 - My experience with E-Records USA and their dedicated team was beyond reproach. They kindly hand held me through a long term project of digitizing every photo album, framed photo, and CD accumulated for over 30 years. They showed me what they could do back in 2022 and waited patiently until I was fully ready to make the project happen in 2024. I know they have many other clients, but I always felt like I was priority and important. They never shied away from all my questions, concerns, and fairly constant stream of emails. They patiently took me through the whole project and kept me updated informed at every step. This was not inexpensive, but the peace of mind I have that all our memories are now safely stored in a few places and can be accessed by my family at any time is worth it. And I freed up many, many boxes and therefore shelves full of bulky photo albums and framed pictures. It was something I had wanted to do for several years and I am so glad I found a company that was so trustworthy and caring about these invaluable memories. I would work with them in the future without question. They went above and beyond. Joan L.
11/16/2024 - They copied my 500 page family genealogy book and created a PDF file so that I can share with other family members. They did a wonderful job at a reasonable price. Marty F.
10/03/2024 - Had them digitize my grandmother's daily diary from 1912. It was in a bound journal. Files came out great. My cousins were thrilled to be able to read it. Was done in only a few short days. Carolyn B.
6/05/2024 - My family and I feel so fortunate to have found Pankaj and eRecords USA. We have dozens of family photo albums and with three siblings there wasn't going to be a good way to split them up. The photos were in albums with plastic sheet covers and many of them had writing on the back and/or on the side of the picture on the album itself. We wanted to preserve the handwriting and information about the photo and the actual photos.
Before consulting with Pankaj my highest hope was to get the photos scanned. What he was able to do went above and beyond what I had hoped for. Not only did he create a PDF each album, preserving the order of the photos and all of the handwriting, but he then provided individual scans of every single photo AND the information on the back at a resolution quality that will allow us print the photos in the future. Not a single photo was damaged and some of them were in albums for over 70 years.
I can't imagine the patience and perseverance it took to gently handle these hundreds of photos. In addition to the quality of the work, the communication, customer service, delivery times, accuracy of pricing and transparency of the process were top notch. We are so grateful to have these memories preserved for ourselves and future generations. Thank you Pankaj and team! sarah k.
6/01/2024 - I used their services to scan a book without damaging it. The scan was of very good quality, the book undamaged. I am very satisfied of the work done. Maurizio B.
5/28/2024
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