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| PRESS RELEASE Denver, CO, August 22, 2005 |
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How Big Is Prospector?
When looking at a resource on the Web, it is often difficult to ascertain the scope and authority of a Website. This profile of Prospector is our attempt to put this system in context. Prospector was officially launched in July 1999 as a venture of the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (http://www.coalliance.org). Its purpose was to provide a regional union catalog of library resources so that a patron could easily find out who owns what, and to allow the ability to easily request items that could be delivered to a patron's local library. The project was so successful, that other libraries have been added over the years so that by fall 2005 there are 23 libraries. These libraries now collectively contribute over 19 million items representing over 6 million unique titles (this is the de-duplicated number as many libraries contribute multiple copies of the same title). During the last year, over 275,000 items have been lent through the Prospector system making it the most active interlibrary lending system in the Rocky Mountain region. Have you ever wondered how many materials Prospector libraries have contributed? The table below provides a snapshot of the system taken in July 2005. It should be noted that the size of a library does not necessarily reflect how many items they lend per year. Some of the smaller libraries are huge players!
For more information contact your local library or: George Machovec |