The Voyager "enhancement committee" process
was suspended for overhaul. As such, VMUG was not able to
submit enhancement requests in May 2006 as usual. Also, this year
Endeavor was purchased by the Ex Libris Group.
In the fall
2006, a ballot was offered to institutions as an interim
solution for telling Endeavor what institutions would like
to see in Voyager.
According
to the FAQ on SupportWeb (https://support.endinfosys.com/cust/voy/user_groups/enhance_FAQ.html#general; password
required), the ballot was designed to
- Identify the most important
enhancement requests as voted by the whole user community
- Give guidance to Endeavor
as to which enhancements should be worked on first
- Narrow down the list of enhancements
to a number which may realistically be included in Voyager® 7.0
in 2007
- Deal with the request backlog
from the past two years in the
quickest and least onerous way possible
- Provide a test-bed to see
if this is a method which can feed into the enhancement
process in the future.
Find a list of the enhancements ballot items at https://support.endinfosys.com/cust/voy/user_groups/enh_eligible2006.html (password
required).
The list favored the acq/cat/circ
modules, though there was an OPAC request that VMUG
members might have appreciated: problem number 110771:
the ability to set different record displays for specific
formats. Otherwise, only one of old VMUG's enhancement
requests was in the ballot: "the
ability to select order of Builder search options any/all/phrase
(i.e., change default in Cataloging module just as
we can in opac)" (problem number 94886). "If
you are wondering where some of your specific enhancement
requests have gone, many of these have been eliminated
in the review process over the last 2-3 months. The reasons
for omitting requests include: complexity, the status
of the current development cycle for the next release,
resolution, very specific to individual sites or situations.
Many of the OPAC requests were also excluded because
they will be picked up in the redesigned public interface" (FAQ).
A good number of VMUG's OPAC enhancement requests were
indeed incorporated into the new OPAC interface demo
that Michele Arms gave at the February 2006 VMUG meeting.
Each institution's primary contact was entitled to
cast one ballot voting on up to ten enhancement requests
that were "the most important for your institution as
a whole." T.
Rudnick wrote to the Enhancement Committee chair and Special
Interest Group (SIG) coordinators to find out about voting
privileges for SIGs and/or initiate a dialogue about ways
to ensure that SIGs are full-voiced members of the enhancement
request cycle. It became clear that more work or new strategies
will be needed to ensure VMUG's representation in the new
enhancement process.
2005 Enhancement Requests
(PDF posted May 2005)
This request includes
four items that will be resubmitted (by May 30, 2005), as per
VMUG's
2005 meeting (PDF). Newer items (e.g., patron histories, reserves,
and OPAC cross-reference screens) need more VMUG consideration by individuals
or the collective.
Also note that Endeavor
has a new User Centered Design initiative; very likely there will be
less emphasis on the current enhancement request process. See this year's
OPAC
Special Interest Group handout (PDF). It says that Endeavor is "actively
pursuing user-focused interface design for the Voyager OPAC. We plan
to develop a new user interface prototype in 2005, with development
of the new interface beginning in 2006. This new interface will be based
on a new architecture and will NOT be a replacement for WebVoyàge.
To learn more about Endeavor’s Usability Initiative, visit:
http://www.endinfosys.com/usability.htm"
(thanks to J. Thompson for attending the EndUser meeting and tapping
others for information). VMUG should consider its role in this new development.
Brief Update to 2004
Enhancement Requests (PDF posted 2/14/05)
This PDF summary was
assembled by T. Rudnick for the VMUG meeting Saturday, 2/19/05. Sources
included
Formal Enhancement
Requests 2004 (posted 6/30/04)
May 2004: individual
items were posted to Endeavor's WebSupport database; complete document
was sent to appropriate enhancement committees.
VMUG's Questions,
with February 2004 Endeavor Responses, Priority, and Status (PDF
posted 4/29/04)
VMUG's Questions (enhancement
requests were selected from this PDF list)
Table of Contents (a 2004
"short list") with suggested rankings (PDF)
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