IGeLU was formed from the merger of ICAU (International Consortium of Aleph Users) and SMUG (SFX and Metalib Users Group), which had previously represented the interests of users of specific products. The new IGeLU association was intended to reduce duplicated effort, and to strengthen the collective voice of customers.
At the time of the union in 2006 IGeLU had an initial membership of 165 libraries from 26 countries.
In 2007, shortly after Ex Libris had merged with Endeavor Information Systems, EndUser (the Endeavor user group) also joined forces with the existing Ex Libris community. International Endeavor customers joined IGeLU, whilst North American sites joined our sister organisation ELUNA (Ex Libris Users of North America), formed in 2006 through the merger of the NAAUG (North American Aleph Users’ Group) and SMUG (SFX MetaLib Users’ Group) to cater for the particular needs of the large North American user community.
We now represent over 500 member libraries, from over 45 countries, and every continent worldwide.