For the Ex Libris Alma product: The timeline for the 2018 Alma enhancement cycle has been announced:
Jan. 28 – Feb. 10, 2018 – New Enhancements to NERS (2 weeks)
Feb. 11 – Mar. 30, 2018 – Enhancement Team reviews, dedups, scopes, verifies and sets up vote in NERS (6 weeks)
April 1 –Apr. 14, 2018 – First round of voting (2 weeks)
Apr. 15 – 18, 2018 – Enhancement Team reviews results, prepares to send to Ex Libris for pointing.
April 18, 2018 – Enhancements to point to Ex Libris
April 19 – June 15, 2018 – Ex Libris pointing work (8 weeks, includes ELUNA meeting)
June 17 -June 30, 2018 – Second round of voting on pointed enhancements (2 weeks)
A couple of notes from the Alma Working Group‘s enhancement coordinator, Ann Miller:
- We adjusted the number of weeks from 3 to 2 for voting in both “rounds.” We’re attempting to bring our process into better alignment with the Primo enhancement process as we often see overlapping requests.
- Remember you can submit an enhancement request at any time at https://ners.igelu.org
In an January 17 email to the Alma community, Ann noted that all past Alma requests (excluding enhancements from the previous year that finished in the top 20, but weren’t approved) will be removed from NERS, the enhancement tracking and voting system. She provided a spreadsheet with past requests, encouraging staff at institutions to submit requests that are “valid, important and needed.”