Middlebury College announces the launch of their new Institutional Repository

Middlebury College is a liberal arts college and, founded in 1800, was the first operating college in the state of Vermont.

When looking for a new institutional repository solution, Middlebury wanted a stable platform that could handle different file types and large file sizes with ease, as well as provide automation potential for future data-centric projects, such as their pioneering Energy2028 initiative. The file visualization capabilities of the Figshare platform as well as its flexibility, simple user interface, and easy management options were appealing for the team at Middlebury.

Wendy Shook, Science Data Librarian at Middlebury College, also pioneered the use of Figshare’s batch management tool for a repository migration, transferring all of their old records to their new Figshare-powered repository. Wendy was able to manage this migration independently while also collaborating with the Figshare team throughout the process, working to identify areas for development and improvement. This has helped the Figshare team optimize the process for future independent migrations using the new batch management tool.

Middelbury’s repository team was able to migrate over 700 records using the batch management tool. The records were migrated into specific groups and linked to faculty repository accounts. The result is an exceptionally well-organized migrated repository, with complete faculty profiles.

“We are very pleased with our new platform for stewarding scholarship at Middlebury,” Wendy shared. “The migration to Figshare was efficient, thanks to our knowledgeable and responsive onboarding team, and we are now planning outreach activities so our community can take full advantage of the features Figshare offers.”

The new institutional repository, available at https://middlebury.figshare.com will make researchers’ and their collaborators’ publications and research data publicly available in one platform, providing separate groups for research data, digitized research collections, open access faculty and staff scholarship, and student scholarship.

"We are delighted to be working with Middlebury College and double delighted that we get to work with librarians like Wendy, who has overseen the successful use of our new migration tool. We look forward to working with the excellent team at Middlebury going forward,” said Figshare Founder and CEO Mark Hahnel.

For more information on Figshare as an institutional repository, visit https://knowledge.figshare.com/institutions

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