NOS PRESTATIONS
YOU'RE COMING FROM →
FileMaker Excel AtoM Omeka Encyclia S-Museum Flora Micromusée Pallas Dublin Core
05b Service · Migration
FROM BRUDISC

Pallas

WE MIGRATE YOUR DATA TO

CollectiveAccess

Pallas is an online documentary management software (archives, photo library, library, manuscripts) designed in the late 1990s within CegeSoma, its first installation. It is now maintained by the BruDISC non-profit, founded in 2001 by the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, which also supports the DISSCO software. Pallas has been deployed in many archive centres and libraries in Belgium — notably at CegeSoma, at the Direction des Monuments et des Sites de Bruxelles (DMS), and in several heritage institutions. When you want to broaden the scope to the museum, integrate HD multimedia, audio or video, or join an international open source community, we take over your base — descriptions, ISAD(G) hierarchies, authorities, linked files — onto CollectiveAccess.

Request a free audit Detailed comparison ↓
LOCK · BELGIAN ECOSYSTEM OPEN
Pallas local community
14
RECORD TYPES
CollectiveAccess handles archives, photo library, library, manuscripts — but also objects, exhibitions, loans, 3D and audio media. A contemporary platform backed by an international community (Whirl-i-Gig in NY, European integrators, idéesculture).
BEFORE
Pallas — designed at CegeSoma, maintained by the BruDISC non-profit (ULB / VUB)
HISTORICAL BELGIAN TOOL
→
AFTER
Open source platform, multimedia, international community
BROWSER ONLY·OPEN SOURCE·API REST
— Process
01

A migration guided, never endured.

5 steps · 8 to 16 weeks
STEP 01 · 1 TO 2 WKS

Audit

We study your data: volume, custom fields, hierarchies, linked media, access rights. Delivered as a report and a target mapping.

DELIVERABLES
  • ↳ Field inventory
  • ↳ Data mapping
  • ↳ Migration plan
STEP 02 · 1 TO 3 WKS

Mapping

Design of the target CollectiveAccess structure — projection of Pallas modules (archives, photo library, library, manuscripts) into CA record types and relations, validated with your team and the BruDISC non-profit.

DELIVERABLES
  • ↳ Customised CA profile
  • ↳ Reference lists
  • ↳ Correspondence tables
STEP 03 · 2 TO 6 WKS

Migration

Extraction from Pallas (EAD-XML export, MARC 21, SQL dump in collaboration with BruDISC, linked JPEG files), transformations (ISAD(G)/ISBD/SEPIADES standards → CA model, multilingual FR/NL), import into CollectiveAccess. Digital files re-linked and enriched (PDF, audio, video, HD now possible on the viewing side).

DELIVERABLES
  • ↳ Acceptance-ready database
  • ↳ Migrated media
  • ↳ Quality report
STEP 04 · 2 TO 4 WKS

Acceptance

Cross-checks: your reference users validate the migrated records, we adjust, we document. Iterations on a pre-production environment.

DELIVERABLES
  • ↳ Test plan
  • ↳ Issue tracking
  • ↳ Acceptance report
STEP 05 · 1 WK

Training & switch-over

Team training on their own migrated database. Switch to production, support during the first days, managed hosting included.

DELIVERABLES
  • ↳ Training sessions
  • ↳ Production rollout
  • ↳ 30-day follow-up
— Comparison
02

Eleven concrete reasons to migrate.

Pallas → CollectiveAccess
AXIS
PALLAS
COLLECTIVEACCESS
Community & ecosystem
BruDISC non-profit (ULB/VUB) — Belgian academic ecosystem focused on Pallas and DISSCO
★
International community (Whirl-i-Gig in NY, European integrators, idéesculture) — several competing providers
Functional scope
Archives, photo library, library, manuscripts — no museum, no objects
★
14 types: archives, objects, collections, places, occurrences, exhibitions, loans, media, authorities
Multimedia
JPEG only on the viewing side — no PDF, no audio, no video, no 3D
★
HD, RAW, PDF, audio, video, 3D OBJ, IIIF — embedded viewers and native players
Business model
Provided by the BruDISC non-profit — expertise and maintenance costs
✓
Open source (GPL) — no licence, no per-user fee, several integrators to choose from
Source code
Maintained by the BruDISC non-profit — no international community fork
✓
Open — the CA community, idéesculture or any other integrator can contribute and develop it further
Metadata standards
ISAD(G), ISBD, SEPIADES — solid for archives and photo library, aligned with ICOMOS
✓
Dublin Core, EAD, VRA Core, MARC, PBCore, ISAD(G), muséesDeFrance profile — native
Public website
Simple viewing module (OPAC), often on intranet
✓
Pawtucket included — faceted public site, IIIF, ready to theme
Search
Single-language FR/NL, accents stripped, case-insensitive — basic full-text
✓
Full-text + facets + typed fields + boolean operators, multilingual, saved queries
API / interoperability
EAD-XML and MARC 21 exports — no documented REST API
✓
Open REST API + OAI-PMH, RDF, Linked Data, Z39.50, EAD, MARC, Dublin Core — documented and open
Reversibility
Exit via EAD/MARC — depending on BruDISC tooling
✓
Standard MySQL base — SQL dump, readable with any tool
Sovereignty & hosting
Hosting and operations by BruDISC, by the institution, or by the Belgian State Archives
✓
Hostable in France (OVH), Belgium, Canada or Morocco — your choice, GDPR-native

★ Three gains change the game: an international community (beyond the BruDISC ULB/VUB ecosystem), a broader scope covering museum and objects, and full multimedia (beyond JPEG-only viewing). Everything else — durability, openness, interoperability — flows from there.

— Guarantees
03

Four safety nets.

Included
01 INTEGRITY

Data preserved

No loss. Every Micromusée field finds its equivalent — including hierarchies, controlled vocabularies and media links.

02 ACCEPTANCE

Tested round-trip

Before going live, you work on a copy of your real database, in pre-production. Adjustments are free of charge.

03 SOVEREIGNTY

You stay in control

The server is hosted by us, but the database and the media belong to you. Full export available at any time, in an open format.

04 COST

No hidden licence

Once migrated, no more purchase or extension fees. You pay for hosting and support, that's it.

— FIRST STEP IS FREE

Send us a Pallas export.
We send back a costed migration plan.

Launch an audit
— Coming from somewhere else?

We can migrate your data.

DESKTOP →

FileMaker Pro / Server

Bases relationnelles propriétaires Claris/Apple
DESKTOP →

Excel tableur

Tableurs Microsoft Excel utilisés comme base de collections
WEB →

AtoM open source

Access to Memory — archives ICA
WEB →

Omeka Classic / S

Plateforme web de publication patrimoniale
DESKTOP →

Encyclia

Logiciel de gestion documentaire
DESKTOP →

S-Museum Skinsoft

Solution propriétaire pour collections (Skinsoft Museum)
DESKTOP →

Flora

Suite de gestion documentaire et archives
DESKTOP →

Micromusée v6 / v7

Logiciel propriétaire historique des musées de France
STANDARD →

Dublin Core standard

Dump générique Dublin Core (XML / CSV / OAI-PMH)
— Continuer la visite

Les autres métiers d'idéesculture.

01 →

Formation

Prise en main, autonomie, montée en compétence
03 →

Hébergement

Serveurs dédiés, infogérance, sauvegardes
04 →

Musées de France

Inventaire, récolement, export Joconde
05 →

Développement

Plugins, intégrations, sur-mesure

Our specialised sites