Common questions

What museums, archives, foundations and nonprofits usually ask us before a first call.

What we do

Do you scan or digitize collections?: No. We build the software that catalogs, holds and publishes what you digitize. The system takes in the files your scanning vendor or staff produce.
Can you work with the system we already have?: Yes. We can start from an existing catalog, spreadsheets or an older system. We connect to the finance and other systems you already run instead of replacing them.
Can you work with our design agency or another contractor?: Yes. On one archive's public websites, a design partner created the designs and we built the sites.

How do you move our records into a new system?: We map each field, clean the records, reconcile which are published and which are not, and check the new system against the old one before switching over. Our catalog migration checklist covers the steps.
Can some records stay off the public website?: Yes. In the archive systems we build, the public website reads only an index of published records, never the catalog database. Records that are not public can be kept on a separate sign-in site that search engines don't index. Read the guide
Will AI change our records without review?: No. When AI is involved, it drafts and suggests. A person reviews and approves each change before it enters the record.
Which standards do you use?: Images in the systems we build are served with IIIF, the standard many archives, libraries and museums use to share high-resolution images.

How does a project start?: With a short call about your collection or system and what you have today. A proposal comes after that, once we understand the problem. How we work
Who looks after the system after launch?: The same team that built it. Most of our work is maintaining and improving systems year after year.
Where do the systems run?: The systems we build run on Amazon Web Services. We set up and run that infrastructure for our clients, including the image servers.
Where is IT Comrade based?: Our office is in Manassas, Virginia. The company is led from Virginia, with an experienced engineering team.