The annual enhancements process is a key part of the Product Development Collaboration Agreement, between IGeLU, ELUNA, and Ex Libris, with Roadmap commitment for successful requests.
Account based participation (individual or consortia), including ability to submit and vote on enhancement requests, is a benefit of IGeLU or ELUNA membership, via login to NERS (New Enhancements Request System).
The Primo enhancement process is for Primo as a Product regardless of deployment model variations, such as Primo managed via Back Office or Primo VE managed via Alma, or previously Classic UI or New UI.
The process is managed collaboratively by the two Primo Working Groups (WGs): IGeLU Primo WG and ELUNA Primo WG. Members from both WGs participate in a joint Enhancements Team, led by an Enhancements Coordinator from each WG, with oversight by the IGeLU WG Coordinator and the ELUNA WG Chair.
Primo Development Points: Primo is allocated 200 points from 2022, increased from previously 150 points, with the 2021 revision of the Product Development Collaboration Agreement.
Contents
This page logs the results and delivery of Primo enhancement rounds from 2014 onwards, including successful requests, their votes, and development points.
See the Timeline Summary for enhancement round dates and the standard timeline structure.
2023 Primo Enhancements
- The new request submission deadline is 28 January 2023
- See the Timeline Summary for all key dates
2022 Primo Enhancements
- Two rounds of voting
- Round One: 56,033 votes total, by 378 accounts, across 108 Votable submissions
- Round Two: 47,645 votes total, by 294 accounts, across 17 Votable submissions
- Development points: 205 (200 from 2022 + 5 from 2023, which will then have 195)
| Request | Votes | Points | ReleaseDelivered |
| Enable patrons to check ‘Keep me signed in’ (VE/BO) #7809 | 4,288 | 45 | May 2023 |
| Prevent Autocomplete suggestions from non-activated sources in CDI (VE/BO) #6729 | 4,244 | 20 | TBC: Targeting for Nov 2023 |
| Add barcode search to Primo (VE/BO) #7859 | 3,985 | 25 | Feb 2023 |
| Better UX for changing number of titles per page (VE/BO) #7700 | 3,979 | 15 | Feb 2023 |
| Collection Discovery usage in Primo Analytics (VE/BO) #7186 Update: Originally stated Nov 2022, but design is being revisited | 3,643 | 15 | TBC: Targeting for Aug 2023 |
| Requesting Flexibility in Local Resource Type Configuration (VE) #7790 | 3,614 | 50 | May & June 2023 |
| Add “Starts With” Functionality to Call Number in the Advanced Search (VE/BO) #7986 | 3,459 | 35 | Feb 2023 |
2021 Primo Enhancement Results
- One round of voting: 50,990 votes total, by 358 accounts, across 98 Votable submissions
- Development points: 150
| Request | Votes | Points | ReleaseDelivered |
| Primo VE: Advanced search: add support for “exact only” #6693 nb Scoped only for Primo VE and CDI on solr, as not feasible for Primo with Back Office on lucene. The solution for Primo VE and CDI is for targeted fields of title, author, and subject, due to size and complexity of indexed data, particularly in CDI UPDATE: Pushed back from Nov 2022 to Feb 2023 and then to May 2023 for inclusion of title and hypertext linking flow, and configuration options | 2,964 | 50 | May 2023 |
| Add granular localization options for Collection Discovery #7402 | 2,723 | 40 | Aug 2022 |
| Enhance the database search to include keyword searching #7199 | 2,636 | 20 | Feb 2022: Primo with Back Office Feb 2022: Primo VE for all data fields Mar 2022: Primo VE for Database Categories |
| Report a problem for records in Primo #7371 & Add integrated error reporting functionality to Primo #7430 UPDATE; Several additional refinements across Aug & Nov 2022 releases, and into 2023 Roadmap | 2,622 (1,579 & 1,043) | 30 | May 2022 |
| After advanced search, show top of results list #7265 UPDATE: Additional refinement in Aug 2022, for retention of last choice user setting | 2,119 | 10 | Mar & Apr 2022: Primo VE May 2022: Primo with Back Office |
| Easily check which activation in Alma is causing a specific record to appear in CDI #7364 (no points as already on Roadmap) | 3,183 | 0 | 20th Oct 2021 |
| Display both Link in Record and Link Resolver in View It for CDI records #7311 (no points as already on Roadmap) UPDATE: Known issue with disabling availability statement Direct Linking configuration for BO sites. Ex Libris states they will not fix this | 2,856 | 0 | Apr 2022: Primo VE May 2022: Primo with Back Office |
2020 Primo Enhancement Results
- Two rounds of voting
- Round One: 35,817 votes total, by 280 accounts, across 97 Votable submissions
- Round Two: 36,625 votes total, by 266 accounts, across 13 Votable submissions
- Development points: 150 + additional items for 2019 points
| Request | Votes | Points | ReleaseDelivered |
| Add Journal Coverage Dates to Brief Results Page #6718 | 6,550 | 70 | Nov 2021: Primo VE Feb 2022: Primo with Back Office |
| Create spinner or indicator for GetIt frame to indicate content is loading #6440 | 5,347 | 5 | Feb 2021: Primo with Back Office (n/a Primo VE as no mashup and loading diamonds already in place) |
| Ability to dedup or FRBR between local data and CDI data #6702 nb The solution will allow more control for customers not by grouping the results, but rather allowing more control on the activation side such as to not include a Book package from CDI, which will mean no duplicates with the local Books, but to choose to still include all the Book Chapters of that package UPDATE: Nov 2021 option was ‘all-or-nothing’ ie opt-in to not surface any CDI Books. Aug 2022 phase two was an outcome change to not surface CDI Books in portfolio based collections, and only allow records to surface from Database collections, on the premise that Database collections are ‘zero title’ and therefore unlikely to cause duplicates by overlap with portfolios. Notes: Record ID continues to be randomised and therefore is not indicative of a specific collection, and some records associated with portfolio based collections (eg VLE) may still appear if they are also in Database collections (eg Scopus) | 5,217 | 50 | Nov 2021 and Aug 2022 |
| Fix indexing of words with hyphens (e.g. hand-book, etc.) #4457 nb The solution will be for a closed list, not any hyphenated term | 4,017 | 25 | Jul 2021: Primo VE May 2021: Primo with Back Office |
| Extend customization options for all request forms (Primo VE) #6637 (additional item for 2021 Roadmap) | 2,309 | 40 | Jul 2021: Primo VE (n/a for Primo with Back Office as already in place) |
| Add support for microlanguages ISO 639-3 and language codes recognised by Library of Congress #6710 (additional item for 2021 Roadmap) – Advocacy timeline | 1,067 | 60 | Oct 2021: Primo VE Nov 2021: Primo with Back Office |
| Add 505$t to Primo VE TOC and Title indexes #6552 (additional item for 2021 Roadmap) UPDATE: Consultation item Sept 2022 with community feedback to Ex Libris, to adjust from main title to addtitle to alleviate ranking issues and allow for separate boosting, with change done Feb 2023 Release | 1,173 | 10 | Jun 2021: Primo VE (n/a for Primo with Back Office, as sites can configure this already as they wish) |
2019 Primo Enhancement Results
- One round of voting: 31,857 votes total, by 250 accounts, across 58 Votable submissions
- Development points: 100 of 150, with remaining in 2020
| Request | Votes | Points | ReleaseDelivered |
| Sticky facets by default #6125 | 2,757 | 25 | May 2020 |
| Enable option to favour latest edition of bibliographic work to top the FRBR group #6230 | 2,609 | 25 | May 2020: Primo VE Nov 2020: Primo with Back Office |
| Export search results to Excel/csv #6190 | 2,409 | 30 | Aug 2020 |
| Make it possible to override Start Harvest date for Delete and ReLoad pipes #6184 | 2,001 | 8 | May 2020: Primo with Back Office (n/a Primo VE as no pipes) |
| Improve NUI user actions on mobile devices #6290 | 1,917 | 12 | Feb 2020 |
| Set automatically the cursor in the search box #6341 (additional item for Roadmap, outside of NERS timeline) | 1,195 | 5 | Feb 2020: Primo with Back Office Jul 2020: Primo VE |
2018 Primo Enhancement Results
- Two rounds of voting
- Round One: 25,596 votes total, by 206 accounts, across 88 Votable submissions
- Round Two: 25,696 votes total, by 179 accounts, across 16 Votable submissions
- Development points: 150
| Request | Votes | Points | ReleaseDelivered |
| Short Permalinks for Records and Searches #5845 | 5,045 | 40 | May 2019: Primo with Back Office Nov 2019: Primo VE |
| Informative Text for Non-extendable Loans in the user area #5866 | 3,248 | 25 | Aug 2019 |
| Add User’s Ability to Select Multiple Items for Renewal #5493 | 3,041 | 20 | Jan 2019: Primo VE Feb 2019: Primo with Back Office |
| Improvements to PCI Administration #5857 (Part 1: More details about each collection on the PCI page (such as number of resources, types of resources it contains). | 2,369 | 20 | Mar-Sep 2020, as part of CDI within Alma |
| Citation trail indicator back on brief display #5610 UPDATE: Removed from brief results in minimised / mobile display in VE Feb 2020 and BO May 2020 due to issue of icon and text overlap | 2,041 | 10 | Jan 2019: Primo VE Feb 2019: Primo with Back Office |
| Custom CSS/SML/Code/Mapping Tables for Emails generated within the new UI #5877 (additional item for Roadmap, outside of NERS timeline with agreed delivery of Primo VE for Send to and Saved Search, and Primo with Back Office for Send To and partial Saved Search for improved OTB design by underlying links and rsrctype display, additional labels adjustment, hex code adjustments for several elements, and hide/show logo) | 1,730 | 35 | Nov 2019 and Feb 2020: Primo with Back Office Feb and Mar 2020: Primo VE |
2017 Primo Enhancement Results
- One round of voting: 22,716 votes total, across 56 Votable submissions
- Development points: 150 + 50 transferred from 2016
| Request | Votes | Points | ReleaseDelivered |
| Add support for any citation style via Citation Style Language (CSL) #5381 | 2,141 | 100 | Jan 2019: Primo VE Feb 2019: Primo with Back Office |
| Zotero support in new UI #5346 | 1,602 | 30 | Nov 2017: Primo with Back Office Jul 2018: Primo VE |
| Improve date facet functionality for resources that cover ranges of dates #5342 | 1,468 | 40 | Aug 2018 |
| (New UI) Hyperlinked headings should go to Browse list and not perform keyword search #5387 (Delivered as part of Enhanced Hypertext Linking) | 785 | 10 | Nov 2017 / Aug 2019: Primo with Back Office Jul 2018: Primo VE |
| Clickable related titles in Item Details tab #5291 (Delivered as part of Enhanced Hypertext Linking) | 751 | 10 | Nov 2017: Primo with Back Office Oct 2018: Primo VE |
| Primo Central Index: Availability facet for Open Access documents #5357 (Additional item for Roadmap, outside of NERS timeline) | 1,747 | May 2018: Primo with Back Office Aug 2018: Primo VE |
2016 Primo Enhancement Results
- Development points: 100 for single item, with remaining 50 transferred to 2017
| Request | Votes | Points | ReleaseDelivered |
| Provide email, print and push options for list of loans/requests in My Account #3441 | 776 | 100 | Aug 2018 |
2015 Primo Enhancement Results
- Two rounds of voting
- Round One: 14,682 votes total (Sept/Oct 2015), across 144 Votable submissions
- Round Two: 12,761 votes total (Mar 2016), across 16 Votable submissions
- Development points: 150
| Request | Votes | Points | ReleaseDelivered |
| After logging in return to the last place they were before logging in (both UIs) #4840 nb The solution will be delivered by the user will be notified that the results might be changed once logging in, but still show the first results | 1,532 | 20 | 2017 |
| Ability to search for new records, and get alerts with only new records #2955 | 1,216 | 50 | Nov 2016 |
| Provide notification to user regarding the expiration of an authenticated Primo sessions #4672 (New UI) / #4323 (both UIs) | 1,099 New / 1,024 Both | 15/30 | 2016 |
| Adding new PNX fields for Search and Display #4482 nb The solution will be delivered by increase of display fields from 50 to 250 | 1,170 | 30 | Aug 2017 |
2014 Primo Enhancement Results
- One round of voting: 9,286 votes total, across 108 Votable submissions
- Development points: 150
| Request | Votes | Points | ReleaseDelivered |
| Date slider – ability to use exact dates #3379 | 437 | 30 | |
| Better search statistics [bX clickthroughs, tab uage, facets] #2966 | 283 | 50 | |
| Give clearer explanation when renewal is impossible [when renewal is denied system should state why] #3145 | 280 | 30 |
Timeline summary
| Year | Submission Deadline | WG Review | Member Voting | WG Review | Ex Libris Pointing | Member Voting (if needed) |
| 2023 | 28.1.2023 | 29.1.2023-11.3.2023 | 12.3.2023-2.4.2023 | 3.4.2023-6.4.2023 | 7.4.2023-1.6.2023 | TBD |
| 2022 | 5.02.2022 | 6.02.2022-19.3.2022 | 20.03.2022- | 17.04.2022-20.4.2022 | 20.4.2022-16.6.2022 | 19.6.2022-3.7.2022 (2nd round) |
| 2021 | 13.02.2021 | 14.02.2021-27.03.2021 | 28.03.2021-17.04.2021 | 18.04.2021-22.04.2021 | 23.04.2021-19.06.2021 | |
| 2020 | 8.2.2020 | 9.2.2021-25.4.2021 | 26.4.2020-10.5.2020 | 11.5.2020-14.5.2020 | 15.5.2020-9.7.2020 | 12.7.2020-1.8.2020 (2nd round) |
| 2019 | 9.2.2019 | 10.2.2019-29.3.2019 | 31.3.2019-21.4.2019 | 22.4.2019-28.4.2019 | 29.4.2019-13.6.2019 | |
| 2018 | 17.2.2018 | 17.2.2018-13.4.2018 | 14.4.2018-29.4.2018 | 30.4.2018-1.6.2018 | 15.7.2018-15.8.2018 (2nd round) | |
| 2017 | 15.3.2017 | 16.3.2017-15.4.2017 | 5.6.2017-20.6.2017 | 21.6.2017-10.10.2017 | ||
| 2016 | 7.3.2016-29.3.2016 (2nd round 2015) | |||||
| 2015 | 29.9.2015-24.10.2015 (1st round 2015) | |||||
| 2014 | 2.9.2014-24.9.2014 | |||||
| 2013 | 16.7.2013-6.8.2013 (Primo/MetaLib) | 25.11.2013-9.12.2013 (OPAC via Primo) | ||||
| 2012 | 8.5.2012-22.5.2012 | 1.6.2012-15.6.2012 (2nd round) 31.10.2012-14.11.2012 (OPAC via Primo) | ||||
| 2011 | 8.3.2011-21.3.2011 | 6.5.2011-23.5.2011 (2nd round) | ||||
| 2010 | 14.12.2009-11.01-2010 |
Standard timeline
The following timeline allows for sufficient time for all involved: for the member community to submit requests, and review and vote during voting rounds; for the Primo Enhancements Team (volunteers!) to review requests and prepare the ballot; and for Ex Libris to scope, assign points, and incorporate delivery into the development schedule.
Where possible the timeline takes into account known holiday periods when relevant for a significant portion of our international community, which is typically for observance of the Easter period fluctuating each year in April.
The timeline also aims to align with key dates for the Alma enhancements process. This is not required, but is preferred as it allows for the Enhancement Teams to move requests as needed from the Primo ballot to Alma ballot, and vice versa. This is typically for requests which are configured in Alma but expressed in Primo, as these are handled in the Primo ballot as ‘the system of expression’. This alignment also benefits our community in having common known dates to plan for time to consider the requests, for these two key products.
| When | What |
| Feb | Submission Deadline: New requests can be entered in the voting system at any time, but there is a deadline for consideration in the current year round. Note: all requests from the last year are archived |
| Feb-Apr | WG Review: The Primo WG Enhancements Team (comprised of members of IGeLU Primo WG and ELUNA Primo WG) reviews, de-duplicates, verifies to check not already possible in-product and not a defect, transfers to Alma or vice versa, and sets up the ballot in the voting system |
| Apr | Member Voting: Three week period, allowing time for review, and accounting for a holiday period during this month for many members. Note: Primo will usually have one voting round, but an additional round may be run if necessary (see below) |
| end Apr | WG Review: The Primo WG Enhancements Team reviews the results, and sends the full list of requests and votes for each to Ex Libris Primo Product Management to assign Development Points to the top voted results. This is the top 20 per the Product Development Collaboration Agreement, but may fluctuate slightly, such as if top voted submissions are rejected and therefore not pointed. Note: The full list of results is provided from WG to Ex Libris as an opportunity for insights into community interest and may lead to additional product development, as Ex Libris may decide to develop further requests |
| Apr-Jun | Ex Libris Pointing: Ex Libris Primo Product Management reviews, scopes, and assigns Development Points to the top voted results (20 – see above) and the Primo WG determines if an additional round of voting is needed. Reasons for an additional voting round include if there are significant top voted request/s rejected by Ex Libris and therefore there may be doubt over community preference, requests split to allow more granular voting on pointed elements, or no clean alignment of assigned points for top voted requests to available Primo Development Points. Ideally, all allocated development points are expended in each year, to avoid workload implications for Ex Libris in fluctuating development cycles, but points may be borrowed or kept in reserve for the following year |
| Jun-Jul | Member Voting: If necessary (see above), an additional round of voting of two weeks takes place (the ballot is only for pointed requests and does not include any rejected requests) |
| Jul-Sep | If not already advised earlier by the Primo WG/s, the successful accepted requests are advised by September, as the traditional month for the IGeLU Conference to be held |
| by Sep next year | Delivery: All accepted requests are delivered as Primo enhancement features by Ex Libris, as per the Product Development Collaboration Agreement. For example by Sept 2022, all 2021 requests should be delivered. Note: In the event that Ex Libris Primo Product Management advises they will add additional enhancements to the Roadmap which were necessarily top voted but were requested by the member community as part of the enhancements process, these additional items are not held to the schedule of ‘within a year’ delivery |
Primo development history summary
- May 2007: First release Primo managed by Primo Back Office (BO) on Classic UI by Local installations with direct server access (Direct-Dedicated), with releases named as Versions up to 4.9, and sites able to decide to apply versions or not
- November 2008: Roadmap revision with customer feedback for less frequent Version releases (2.x) and instead more Service Packs (2.x.x) in intervals of 1-3 months. For example, Service Packs for Version 2 of 2.1.2 on December 14 2008, 2.1.3 on February 2 2009, and 2.1.4 on March 31 2009, and then Version 3 release in beta on November 9, 2009
- December 2009: Primo Central Index beta release available for development partners
- June 2010: Primo Central Index first general release available, for sites using Version 3.0
- April 2015: Releases changed to quarterly, with releases named by month of release, for example April 2015 Release
- Mid-late 2015: Hosted cloud SaaS options introduced for Primo managed by Back Office, such as Multi-Tenant and Total Care, with enforced release application. Releases applied to the Sandbox two weeks prior to Production (four weeks for consortia)
August 2016: New UI introduced - August 2017: Primo VE deployment model introduced with monthly releases, only using New UI, as a management option for sites using Alma (instead of Primo Back Office)
- February 2019: Central Discovery Index announced, as a merge of the Summon and Primo Central Indexes, with early access Alma customers from November 2019, Alma customers beginning enablement February/March 2020 and switchover from March/August 2020, and SFX customers beginning transition in late 2020
- May 2022: Primo VE Release Cadence introduced (in conjunction with the same for Alma). ‘Feature releases’ now changed to quarterly, in alignment with Primo managed via Back Office. May 2022 was the last monthly release, and then the first Feature release was August 2022, with ‘Fix’ releases’ continuing for Resolved Issues releases in interim months eg June 2022 and July 2022.
Enhancement process summary history and specific year adjustments
- 2006: Product Development Cooperation Agreement with IGeLU and Ex Libris (August 22, 2006)
- 2008: Product Development Collaboration Agreement with IGeLU, ELUNA, and Ex Libris (May 10, 2008)
- 2009: Discussions begin for formalising the Primo enhancements voting process into a New Enhancement Request System, from late July 2009
- 2009/2010: First formalised member voting process for Primo enhancements on 40 submissions gathered together by user feedback to Ex Libris and entered by the Primo WGs into the new database, with 100 votes per member institution and a limit of 10 votes per submission (Core – http://ners.galib.uga.edu)
- 2011: First voting in the current NERS locally developed platform (by Bob Trotter and Mark Dehmlow – https://ners.igelu.org/), on 250 enhancements extracted from Pivotal and added to NERS by the Primo WG/s. Two voting rounds given the high number of initial submissions. 100 votes per member institution, with votes able to be applied as the site wishes
- 2012/2013: Primo voting rounds varied due to granular split between Primo / MetaLib and OPAC via Primo
- 2014: Product Development Collaboration Development revision (December 2014)
- 2015: Ex Libris Idea Exchange launched (September 2015)
- 2015/2016: Primo voting rounds and delivery varied due to focus on New UI development
- 2017: Primo enhancements process timeline ran later due to focus on the Primo New UI rollout
- 2020: Primo enhancements process timeline adjusted due to COVID-19, in response to community feedback
- 2021: Primo enhancements process timeline adjusted by community request and alignment with Alma voting, from 2 weeks of voting extended to 3 weeks, with ongoing commitment for this to give sufficient time for member review
- 2021: Product Development Collaboration Development revision, with Primo allocated point rising from 150 to 200 from 2022 (October 2021)
- 2022: Primo enhancements process timeline was adjusted to allow additional time extension in initial voting round for system issues, to allow time for correction
- 2023:
First planned voting for the Primo enhancements process in the new NERS vendor platform: Aha. Update: The Aha platform migration has been postponed for Primo, and the 2023 round will be held in the current NERS platform
Additional notes
- Voting rounds are on HST Hawaii time, to cover our international user community. For example voting closing April 16th 2022 is 2022-04-16 23:59:59 HST
- Release Delivery details above include variations due to quarterly releases for Primo with Back Office and monthly releases for Primo VE (introduced in August 2017). Note: Primo VE shifted from monthly to quarterly feature releases after May 2022. Voting rounds have also varied due to Classic UI and New UI (introduced in August 2016)
- Additional enhancements related to NERS submissions which Ex Libris advises will also be added to the Roadmap are not held to the ‘within a year’ delivery timeline
- Number of accounts voting per round available from the voting system from 2018 onwards. Note: Accounts may be for a) single membership for individual site with 100 votes total per voting round, b) single membership consortia with single membership paid on behalf of many members with 100 votes total per voting round, c) multi-membership consortia with memberships paid for each member and votes applied centrally via one account with 100 votes multiplied by the number sites per voting round (for example 100 votes x 5 sites = 500 votes)
- The yearly enhancements process described here is the only one which guarantees Roadmap commitment per the Product Development Collaboration Agreement. This process is not associated with the Primo Idea Exchange, which is managed directly by Ex Libris Primo Product Management (not the Primo WG/s), is not bound by any agreement with ELUNA or IGeLU, and has no Roadmap commitment