Rocking Atlantic City & Shaping the Future of Preservation: Our NJLA/NJASL 2026 Recap
The energy was high last week at the Hard Rock Casino in Atlantic City for the NJLA/NJASL 2026 Conference! From February 17th to 19th, our team was stationed at Booth #220, ready to talk about the intersection of library history and modern technology. We came away with not just friendly new connections, but a profound sense of how quickly the world of library preservation is evolving—and how IDI is helping to lead that charge.
A Legacy of Library Partnerships
While the Atlantic City setting was vibrant and new, IDI’s presence at NJLA is built on decades of trust. Our connection to the library community runs deep. Marty Tannenbaum has been a dedicated attendee of this conference for the past 40 years, and IDI has had a proud presence on the floor for over 25 years.
This year was no different. We had the pleasure of engaging with over 100 attendees, reconnecting with friendly, familiar faces, and listening to the challenges facing library staff in 2026. These conversations are the foundation of what we do. They help us understand exactly what resources your patrons are demanding.
IDI President Marty Tannenbaum and Digital Sales Specialist Josseline Gonzalez
The Conversion Conversation
The most frequent requests from librarians this year centered on enhancing user services. The common thread was the need for high-quality, searchable conversion services for their niche local history collections.
Librarians are looking for partner support in scanning vital resources that patrons depend on for genealogy and historical research, including:
- Yearbooks & City Directories: Unlocking the human story of your town.
- Newspapers & Rare Papers: Moving fragile print to searchable digital formats.
- Town Documents: Protecting the governing history of the community.
We discussed how many libraries are using our DigiFind-It platform—our cost-efficient file storage and display system that now proudly hosts over 80 libraries—to not just preserve these files, but to make them truly accessible to the public.
Capabilities Ramped Up for You
A major theme of our conversations at the booth was how IDI has spent the last year drastically enhancing our internal capabilities. We have been working hard to ensure that when you come to us with a massive archival project, we are ready to execute it with unprecedented speed and precision.
Here is a quick look at what we have achieved just in the past year, proving that we can scale up for any project, big or small:
- Book Scanning Excellence: In just one 6-week period during 2025, IDI digitized 60,000 full books.
- Massive Microfilm/Microfiche Projects:We have ramped up production to handle millions of images in short timeframes. We are currently executing a project to scan 25 million images for a client in under 6 months.
- Specialized Technical Scanning: We are in the process of completing 30,000 architectural drawings for two universities.
We don’t just “offer” these services; we have the infrastructure to deliver.
The Future of IDI
While we loved discussing our current success, the most exciting conversations were those we had about what’s next. While we will be sending out a dedicated launch announcement soon, we couldn’t resist giving our NJLA booth visitors an exclusive teaser for DigiStore, our new feature-rich file display and retrieval platform.
DigiStore is not just storage; it is your ultimate command center for digital assets. When you use DigiStore, you gain:
- Ultimate Search and Retrieval: We have integrated AI that changes the game. You won’t just search text; you can search across all file types, including audio and video files, using on-demand transcription and facial recognition. Imagine finding a patron’s great-grandfather not just in a newspaper scan, but in an audio recording of a town council meeting.
- Intelligent Asset Management: Manage your budget by managing your files. DigiStore allows you to move files between “hot” (frequently accessed) and “cold” (infrequently used) storage to optimize costs, and provides detailed reports to help you make informed decisions about your digital footprint.
- Complete Control: Your data is sacred. DigiStore offers multiple backup locations for maximum security, while giving you full administrative control over who can access your files and how. Better yet, we offer infinite storage availability, meaning your digital archive will never outgrow your needs.
