The Alma Product Working Group (PWG) continues to meet monthly. Most of the PWG member institutions are now live, which makes for even more rousing conversation.
ALMA-L is an active list with over one thousand subscribers. Following is our PWG quarterly-ish IGeLU report.
Alma Issues
Alma PWG members monitored Alma-L for issues reported by five or more respondents since IGeLU. At the meeting, Ex Libris also recommitted to better monitoring of the list for these repeat issues.
The PWG is happy to report that Ex Libris has been responding to these types of problems appropriately over the last three months.
Community Zone Advisory Group
During our December call, participating members from the PWG reported that neither the Core Group nor the larger advisory group had had call since August. A PWG member contacted Alma Product Manager Sharona Sagi for an update. A mid-January call is scheduled to discuss:
- Planned roadmap for supporting CZ process
- Vendors Ex Libris is working with to get MARC records and how the advisory group can get involved in the vendor process
- Creation of a working statement on decisions from the advisory group to other customers
ELUNA and IGeLU Program Updates
Program planning is actively in process for ELUNA 2014 in Montreal. Many thanks to those who have contributed Alma program proposals thus far.
We may be in need of more proposals. Please watch the Alma-L for further program announcements.
Planning for IGeLU 2014 in Oxford is on track. Solicitation of program proposals will begin in the spring.
Alma Special Interest Groups
During PWG meetings and other informal gatherings, two areas of functionality have come up again and again:
- analytics
- and licensing.
The PWG will be establishing special interest groups for analytics and licensing.
Other areas of ongoing interest are EDI, ILL, and user interface.
We will tackle these other areas as we are able.
Betsy Friesen, IGeLU/ELUNA Alma PWG coordinator