2020 Alma Enhancement Process Begins!
Because you asked for it, we archived all of the enhancements in NERS that were available for voting during last cycle! Hurray! That means it should be easier for you to find duplicates or enhance a request, when you are entering your requests. With any luck, it may mean that there won’t be 500 requests for us to go through on the first vote. The Alma Working Group is planning on enough help to thoroughly review, consolidate, and ask questions about the requests. So, start entering your requests now! More information will be coming out from our fearless “enchantment” chair and her apprentice very soon. Here is the 2020 enhancement timeline.
Jan. 26 – Feb. 8, 2020 – New Enhancements to NERS (2 weeks)
Feb. 9 – Mar. 28, 2020 – Enhancement Team reviews, dedups, scopes, verifies and sets up vote in NERS (6 weeks)
March 29 –Apr. 12, 2020 – First round of voting (2 weeks)
Apr. 13 – 15, 2020 – Enhancement Team reviews results, prepares to send to Ex Libris for pointing.
April 16, 2020 – Enhancements to point to Ex Libris
April 17 – June 11, 2020 – Ex Libris pointing work (8 weeks, includes ELUNA meeting)
June 14 -June 27, 2020 – Second round of voting on pointed enhancements (2 weeks)
Alma Working Group Changes
Leadership
Joint coordination of the Alma Working Group (WG) will transition to the able hands of Amelia Rowe, RMIT (Melbourne, Australia) and Catherine Grove, Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, USA). Amelia was already a member of the Alma WG and Catherine is now attending meetings as the Working Group’s incoming co-chairs/coordinators. Additionally, Megan Lee, Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) and Mary Grenci (University of Oregon, USA) will be the Alma Working Group’s incoming deputy chairs/coordinators. They will officially take office after IGeLU 2020. The other WG members will each chair one of the functional sub-groups.
Functional Sub-Groups Forming
The Alma community and the scope of work of the WG has expanded so much, we need more voices and hands for the work. We are forming several functional sub-groups to help identify and prioritize needs. Members of the groups will consult on enhancements in specific areas, provide input to Ex Libris when requested, and work toward improvement of Alma. As mentioned above, each of functional sub-groups will be chaired by a current member of the Alma Working Group. The sub-groups will begin their work as soon as we have membership in place.
For each of the sub-groups we are seeking 6-7 volunteers to appoint in the following areas: Resource Management, Resource Sharing, Acquisitions, Fulfillment, and Alma Digital. We need to try to evenly distribute membership between staff from North American institutions (ELUNA) and the international community (IGeLU). Different types of institutions would be great, too. Terms of office will be 1 or 2 years, since we need to stagger terms. No previous ELUNA or IGeLU experience is required and you are not required to attend the conferences. This time around we will be appointing members to the groups, with geographic representation in mind. Elections will be held on a regular basis after this round. The time commitment for sub-groups will be 1-4 hours per month, depending on what the group is working on. Active participation is expected. We suggest that you discuss volunteering with your supervisor before putting your name forward.
Please fill out this form if you would like to participate. If you are interested in more than one area, please indicate your first and second choice. THE FORM WILL STAY OPEN UNTIL ALL SLOTS ARE FILLED OR UNTIL JANUARY 31, 2020, WHICHEVER COMES FIRST. If you have questions, please contact the current Alma WG chair, Betsy Friesen (b-frie@umn.edu)