Over the past months, we have been preparing to move subsets of content from the classic CDS (cds.cern.ch) to the new CERN Repository (repository.cern). Today, we’re happy to share a big milestone in that journey:
The full CERN IT Department collection — more than 60,000 records — has now been migrated to the new repository.
You can find the IT collection here:
https://repository.cern/communities/information-technology
What moved?
The IT Department collection contains a wide range of material: technical reports, internal documentation, presentations, project notes, and other outputs produced by CERN’s IT community over many years.
All of these records have now been transferred from cds.cern.ch to repository.cern, preserving:
- Metadata and descriptions
- Attached files
- Links and identifiers
- Community structure and visibility settings
In short: the content is the same, but the platform is new.
Why this matters
This migration is more than just a change of URL.
The new CERN Repository is designed to support modern workflows: better search, cleaner record pages, structured communities, and integrated review toold. Moving a large and active collection like IT’s is an important step in validating that the platform works at scale — not just for small pilot communities, but for real production collections with long histories.
It also means IT Department records are now ready to benefit from new features as they are released — including in-place review discussions, improved curation tools, and future integrations.
What does this mean for users?
If you used the IT collection on cds.cern.ch before:
- Your records are still available
- Links have been preserved or redirected where possible
- You can browse the collection in the new interface
- Future submissions and updates will happen in repository.cern
The old CDS instance remains available for reference during the transition period, but new work of migrated IT department is now expected to take place on the new repository.
Are you from the IT department and planning to go for a conference? Will you create an article/preprint/poster/presentation or other document? You worked on a report and looking for a place to preserve it for the future? The new CDS platform is the place to go!
A big migration behind the scenes
Moving 60,000 records is not a small task. This required:
- Data extraction from the legacy CDS
- Metadata mapping to the new repository model
- File migration and integrity checks
- Community structure recreation
- Extensive validation by the CDS team
What’s next?
The IT collection migration is part of the broader transition of CERN communities to the new repository. More departmental and collaboration collections will follow in the coming months.
As always, we’ll keep sharing progress here on the CDS blog — and we welcome feedback as people start using the new platform for day-to-day work.
If you spot anything odd in the migrated records or have questions about the new collection, reach out through the CDS support channels. We’re happy to help.
See you in the new repository 🙂