ELUNA is an acronym for the Ex Libris Users of North America.  Every year ELUNA meets for a conference to discuss the state of  future development of Ex Libris products.  This year the conference was held in Long Beach, CA from July 30-Aug.1 2008.  An accompanying technical  seminar run by Ex Libris took place July 27-30.

URM

Ex Libris showcased the conceptual model of its current  development product, Universal Resource Management (URM) .

The URM is to be the next generation management tool for all library resources. Development will be multiphased. The first step, URM 1, will replace Verde as the Ex Libris electronic resource management product.   Verde owners will have rights to the URM.  It is slated for release Dec. 2009.

Ex Libris has no plans to discontinue development or support of ALEPH at this time.  However, it seems the ultimate goal is all library management modules will be rewritten as part of the URM.

 

Additional Announcements:

· Ex Libris was bought by a new holdings company.  This will not impact the operation of the company.

· Announcement of Ex Libris Commons.  This is a new open platform for users of the different products to discuss and share information.

· Support incidents which were previously limited to originating institutions will be open for everyone to view.

· Development of centralized e-book repository.

 

 

ELUNA 2008 Report

FCLA’s participation:

· 8 FCLA staff attended ELUNA

· 6 FCLA staff participated in  presentations and sessions.

· 3 served on committees and interest groups for 2008.

· ELUNA and IGeLU users participated in collaborative testing of version 19 ALEPH in Ex Libris’s Israel office.  Daniel Cromwell from FCLA tested the new permissions module and the acquisitions/serials module.

· The first schools are moving to version 19 this summer.

· Version 19 enhancement highlights:

o Course Reserves redesigned and put into GUI.

 

 

 

 
Text Box: Product announcement and Information learned at ELUNA

With over 115 programs at the conference  there was a great deal of information and training opportunities.  The following are some highlights brought back.

Version 19