The agreement formalizes principles of collaboration between Ex Libris, a Proquest Company, the Ex Libris Users of North America (ELUNA) and the International Group of Ex Libris Users (IGeLU) on products which Ex Libris develops. Started in 2008, the agreement has been revised a number of times. The agreement is unique in the industry in that a vendor and its community organizations have an explicit agreement of their roles in the product development process. This agreement ensures community requirements are met through a formal enhancement voting process organized by the community usergroups.
Taking nine months to rewrite, Ex Libris, ELUNA and IGeLU significantly revised the Product Development Collaboration Agreement. This new version creates a master agreement with a product addenda to the agreement. This way, development capacity could be reviewed for products annually without significant revision to the master agreement. Sections were also added on cross-product initiatives (such as the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Search Advisory Group) and large scale development initiatives (Controlled Digital Lending Advisory Group).
At the signing of the agreement, the following product development point allocations have changed:
- Leganto increased from 40 to 50
- SFX increased from 45 to 50
- Summon increased from 150 to 200
- Primo increased from 150 to 200
Further changes will be discussed at an upcoming senior management meeting in December, 2021.