Based on the Product Development Cooperation Agreement of May 13, 2008, talks have been conducted between Ex Libris, IGeLU and ELUNA to come to a procedure for submitting and prioritising requests by IGeLU and ELUNA members for new databases and targets for SFX and MetaLib. In 2009 a preliminary procedure outline was agreed upon, including handling of regional resources (see Newsletter 2, 2009, page 19).
A small working group was established, consisting of Mark Dehmlow and Lukas Koster on behalf of the user groups, and Christine Stohn, Carmit Marcus and Ron Lozinsky on behalf of Ex Libris.
The NERS system is designed to take care of both software and CKB requests, and in January 2010 the SFX PWG discussed the details of the procedure for the SFX KB during its meeting in Amsterdam. In a conference call with Christine Stohn and Ron Lozinsky the procedure was confirmed. It will be implemented this spring and evaluated after 6 months. The MetaLib PWG will discuss the procedure during their meeting in Amsterdam in March.
There are many small details, but the basic process is as follows:
Voting will happen in a “me too” fashion with the ability to add a vote to or subtract a vote from a resource while it is still vote-able. Once every two months, the user groups will forward the top six resources to Ex Libris, two of which will be special “regional” resources. Ex Libris will indicate if the resources can be added, and if so by when, and if not why. The IGeLU and ELUNA SFX Product Working Groups will co-manage this process and will maintain regular communication with the user community regarding voting results, when resources are sent to Ex Libris, and what is to be implemented and in what time frame. Ex Libris and the user groups have agreed to test the process out for 6 months, after which time, we will evaluate how the process is going and adjust as needed.
We’re still finalizing the details with ELUNA, but once we finish organizing the process and implementing the changes to the enhancement request voting system, we will be ready to go. Keep a look out in the next few weeks for an email from the IGeLU and ELUNA SFX Product Working Groups to begin adding CKB resources to the enhancement request voting system and to start voting on those resources. Special thanks to ELUNA and Ex Libris for working toward a collaborative venture!
Lukas Koster, Mark Dehmlow
