Primo NERS Software Enhancements

Annual Enhancement rounds are part of the Product Development Collaboration Agreement, between IGeLU, ELUNA, and Ex Libris, with Roadmap commitment for successful requests. Site-based participation by submissions and voting is a benefit of IGeLU or ELUNA membership, via institutional login to NERS (New Enhancement Request System).

The Primo enhancement process is for Primo as a Product, regardless of deployment model variations such as Primo with Back Office or Primo VE managed via Alma.

The yearly enhancements 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.

This page logs the details of Primo enhancement rounds from 2014 onwards, including successful submissions, and their votes, development points, and delivery timelines.

Also on this page – a Timeline Summary for enhancement round dates for 2017 onwards and the standard timeline for an overall understanding of the entire process by month and key stages

Primo Development Points: Primo was allocated 150 points up to 2021, and from 2022 is allocated 200.

2021 Primo Enhancement Results

  • One round of voting: 50,990 votes total, across 98 Votable submissions
  • Development points: 150
RequestVotesPointsReleaseDelivered
Primo VE: Advanced search: add support for “exact only” #66932,96450Anticipated
March 2022
Add granular localization options for Collection Discovery #74022,72340Anticipated
H2 2022
Enhance the database search to include keyword searching #71992,63620Anticipated
February 2022
Report a problem for records in Primo #7371 & Add integrated error reporting functionality to Primo #74302,622
(1,579 & 1,043)
30Anticipated
Q2 2022
After advanced search, show top of results list #72652,11910Anticipated
March 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)
3,183020th October 2021
Display both Link in Record and Link Resolver in View It for CDI records #7311
(no points as already on Roadmap)
2,8560Anticipated
Q2 2022

2020 Primo Enhancement Results

  • Two rounds of voting
    • Round One: 36,087 votes total, across 97 Votable submissions
    • Round Two: 36,625 votes total, across 13 Votable submissions
  • Development points: 150 + additional items for 2019 points
RequestVotesPointsReleaseDelivered
Add Journal Coverage Dates to Brief Results Page #67186,55070Nov 2021: Primo VE
Feb 2022: Primo with Back Office
Create spinner or indicator for GetIt frame to indicate content is loading #64405,3475February 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 by not 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: November 2021 option is ‘all-or-nothing’ ie ability to hide all Books from CDI by resource type. Ex Libris is considering options further to meet the submission. Q2 2022 Phase 2 will be to remove records if local inventory is present by ISBN match
5,21750To be delivered
November 2021 and pending Q2 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
4,01725July 2021: Primo VE
May 2021: Primo with Back Office
Extend customization options for all request forms (Primo VE) #6637
(additional item for 2021 Roadmap)
2,30940July 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
1,06760Oct 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)
1,17310June 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: 32,491 votes total, across 58 Votable submissions
  • Development points: 100 of 150, with remaining in 2020
RequestVotesPointsReleaseDelivered
Sticky facets by default #61252,75725May 2020
Enable option to favour latest edition of bibliographic work to top the FRBR group #62302,60925May 2020: Primo VE
November 2020: Primo with Back Office
Export search results to Excel/csv #61902,40930August 2020
Make it possible to override Start Harvest date for Delete and ReLoad pipes #6184
2,001
8May 2020: Primo with Back Office (n/a Primo VE as no pipes)
Improve NUI user actions on mobile devices #62901,91712February 2020
Set automatically the cursor in the search box #6341
(additional item for Roadmap, outside of NERS timeline)
1,1955February 2020: Primo with Back Office
July 2020: Primo VE

2018 Primo Enhancement Results

  • Two rounds of voting
    • Round One: 25,671 votes total, across 88 Votable submissions
    • Round Two: 25,696 votes total, across 16 Votable submissions
  • Development points: 150
Request VotesPointsReleaseDelivered
Short Permalinks for Records and Searches #58455,04540May 2019: Primo with Back Office
November 2019: Primo VE
Informative Text for Non-extendable Loans in the user area #58663,24825August 2019
Add User’s Ability to Select Multiple Items for Renewal #54933,04120January 2019: Primo VE
February 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).2,36920March-September 2020, as part of CDI within Alma
Citation trail indicator back on brief display #56102,04110January 2019: Primo VE
February 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: Send to and Saved Search and Primo with Back Office 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)
1,73035November 2019 and February 2020: Primo with Back Office
February and March 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
RequestVotesPointsReleaseDelivered
Add support for any citation style via Citation Style Language (CSL) #53812,141100January 2019: Primo VE
February 2019: Primo with Back Office
Zotero support in new UI #53461,60230November 2017: Primo with Back Office
July 2018: Primo VE
Improve date facet functionality for resources that cover ranges of dates #53421,46840August 2018
(New UI) Hyperlinked headings should go to Browse list and not perform keyword search #5387 (delivered as part of Enhanced Hypertext Linking)78510November 2017 / August 2019: Primo with Back Office
July 2018: Primo VE
Clickable related titles in Item Details tab #5291 (delivered as part of Enhanced Hypertext Linking)75110November 2017: Primo with Back Office
October 2018: Primo VE
Primo Central Index: Availability facet for Open Access documents #5357
(additional item for Roadmap, outside of NERS timeline)
1,747May 2018: Primo with Back Office
August 2018: Primo VE

2016 Primo Enhancement Results

  • Development points: 100 for single item, with remaining 50 transferred to 2017
RequestVotesPointsReleaseDelivered
Provide email, print and push options for list of loans/requests in My Account #3441776100August 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
RequestVotesPointsReleaseDelivered
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
1,532202017
Ability to search for new records, and get alerts with only new records #29551,21650November 2016
Provide notification to user regarding the expiration of an authenticated Primo sessions #4672 (New UI) / #4323 (both UIs)1,099 New / 1,024 Both15/302016
Adding new PNX fields for Search and Display #4482
nb The solution will be delivered by increase of display fields from 50 to 250
1,17030August 2017

2014 Primo Enhancement Results

  • One round of voting: 9,286 votes total, across 108 Votable submissions
  • Development points: 150
RequestVotesPointsReleaseDelivered
Date slider – ability to use exact dates #337943730
Better search statistics [bX clickthroughs, tab uage, facets] #296628350
Give clearer explanation when renewal is impossible [when renewal is denied system should state why] #314528030

Timeline summary

YearSubmission DeadlineWG Review1st Round VoteWG ReviewEx Libris Pointing2nd Round Vote
20225.02.20226.02.2022-19.03.202220.03.2022-9.04.202210.04.2022-13.04.202214.04.2022-9.06.2022TBC if necessary
12.06.2022-25.06.2022
202113.02.202114.02.2021-27.03.202128.03.2021-17.04.202118.04.2021-22.04.202123.04.2021-19.06.2021n/a
20208.2.20209.2.2021-25.4.202126.4.2020-10.5.202011.5.2020-14.5.202015.5.2020-9.7.202012.7.2020-1.8.2020
20199.2.201910.2.2019-29.3.201931.3.2019-21.4.201922.4.2019-28.4.201929.4.2019-13.6.2019n/a
201817.2.201817.2.2018-13.4.201814.4.2018-29.4.201830.4.2018-1.6.201815.7.2018-15.8.2018
201715.3.201716.3.2017-15.4.20175.6.2017-20.6.201721.6.2017-10.10.2017n/a

Standard timeline

The following ensures that there is sufficient time for all involved: for the member user community to submit, consider, and vote on enhancements; 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.

Ideally, the timeline is also aligned with Alma enhancements key dates for at least first round voting, to allow for the common scenario of submissions being moved from Primo to Alma, and vice versa. This also benefits our community in having one known targeted period to remember and plan for time to consider first round enhancements, for these two key products.

WhenWhat
FebSubmissions can be entered in NERS at any time, but there is a deadline for consideration in the current year round
Feb-AprThe Primo WG Enhancements Team (comprised of members of IGeLU Primo WG and ELUNA Primo WG) reviews, dedupes, scopes, verifies, transfers to Alma NERS when necessary, and sets up the voting round
AprFirst round of voting – three weeks (allows time for review of the full submission list, and accounts for holiday period during this month for many members)
end AprThe Primo WG Enhancements Team reviews the results, and sends the list of requests and votes for each to Ex Libris Primo Product Management to assign Development Points
Apr-JunEx Libris reviews, scopes, and assigns Development Points to the top voted results (20). The Primo WG determines if a second round of voting is needed (such as if there is doubt over community preference or no clean alignment of assigned points for top voted requests to available Primo Development Points)
Jun-JulIf necessary, a second round of voting takes place – two weeks (as the list is only for the pointed results)
SeptIf not already advised earlier, the successful accepted enhancements are announced in alignment with the IGeLU Conference
by Sept next yearAll accepted enhancements are delivered, as per the Product Development Collaboration Agreement. For example by Sept 2021, all 2020 requests should be delivered
nb Ex Libris may agree to develop additional requests which were not top voted. These additional Roadmap items are not held to the schedule of ‘within a year’ delivery

Notes

  • Voting rounds start and open on HST Hawaii time, to cover our international user community. For example voting closing April 17th 2021 is 2021-04-17 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). Earlier rounds also varied by Classic UI and New UI (introduced in August 2016)

Specific year adjustments

  • 2021 – Timeline adjusted by community request and Alma re-alignment, for 3 weeks of voting in Round 1, with ongoing commitment for this to give sufficient time for member review
  • 2020 – Timeline adjusted due to COVID-19, in response to community feedback
  • 2017 – Timeline ran later due to Primo New UI rollout
  • 2015/2016 – Voting rounds and delivery varied due to focus on New UI development
  • 2014 – Product Agreement revision