About

What is SWIFT?

SWIFT is a service of the Colorado State Library that supports statewide Interlibrary Loan (ILL) for more than one hundred and fifty public, academic, special and correctional libraries of any size or type, allowing your patrons to search and place requests for materials located in other libraries throughout the state of Colorado. SWIFT does this by providing and supporting a software platform to facilitate ILL for Colorado libraries. 

What is Prospector?

Prospector is a union catalog originally consisting of over fifty academic, public and special libraries in Colorado and Wyoming. Prospector gives library patrons and staff access to more than 30 million books, journals, DVDs, CDs, videos and other materials held in Prospector member libraries. With a single search, patrons can find materials and request free delivery to their local library via the Colorado Library Courier. 

What is SWIFT/Prospector?

For many years, SWIFT used VDX, an ILL software platform from OCLC. However, in 2020, the State Library formed an agreement with the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries to migrate SWIFT libraries to Innovative Interfaces’ INN-Reach system and connect with Prospector. By partnering with the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries to connect SWIFT members to the Prospector network, we are greatly expanding the resource sharing landscape for all Coloradans. Bringing these groups together in one service will bring the state the closest to achieving a “statewide” catalog than it has been able to do up until now.

Historic Perspective:

Pre-2020, there were two interlibrary loan consortial groups that Colorado libraries could participate in (this does not include shared catalogs like AspenCat, FlatIrons Consortium or Marmot Library Network) – the SWIFT system and the Prospector system. There are many instituions that chose to be a part of one or the other, depending upon the needs of their patron base and their own resources. However, there were some stellar institutions that felt that resource sharing was at the core of what they did, and chose to be part of both services. We would like to thank them for thier dedication to the resource sharing eco system and for supporting all of the libraries in the state. Below is a map of the historical resource sharing landscape depicting those institutions that chose one service or the other – or supported the Colorado library community to the highest degree by participating in both. We shout out to those institutions depicted in blue below.

Prospector Only

SWIFT Only

SWIFT/Prospector