Denver Public Library Deactivation in Prospector

December 20, 2010

Denver Public Library (DPL) remains deactivated in Prospector for borrowing and lending. This means that DPL customers will not be able to borrow items through Prospector and those from other libraries will not be able to request DPL materials.

Although DPL has successfully completed a migration to a new integrated library system in February 2011 they remain inactive in Prospector pending some technical and financial issues. We are hoping that DPL will rejoin Prospector later in 2011 but the date has not yet been determined.

In the meantime, if you are a DPL patron and would like to borrow an item through Prospector, you may want to get a borrowers card from another library who continues to participate in the system. The CLC (Colorado Library Card) program allows the general public to get a borrowers card for most other public libraries (and some academic libraries) by visiting that library and showing the library card from your home library. However, if that is done, you will need to pick up Prospector requests at one of the branches of that library.

DPL materials continue to appear in the Prospector system but their circulation status is not accurate. Please visit the new DPL online catalog to determine current availability at DPL itself. These records will soon be withdrawn from Prospector pending a reload later in 2011.

The Prospector team can also be reached by sending an email to help@coalliance.org if you have specific questions.

Marmot Library Network to Join Prospector in 2011

November 23, 2010

Western Regional Consortia Share Library Resources across the Divide

Emeryville, CA, Grand Junction, CO, and Denver, CO —The Marmot Library Network signed an agreement with the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries and Innovative Interfaces that allows Marmot to join the Prospector regional union catalog and interlibrary loan system (http://www.coalliance.org/prospector). “The addition of the Marmot libraries continues to demonstrate the value that Prospector has to library staff and patrons alike,” says George Machovec, Associate Director of the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries. “It’s great to see Prospector continuing to grow and evolve.”

The addition of the Marmot libraries will also enhance the Prospector offering as they will be adding their holdings to the Prospector catalog. The current catalog includes approximately 27 million items (10 million titles), which supports interlibrary lending among 26 public, academic, and special libraries located in the metropolitan “Front Range” of Colorado and Wyoming. Marmot will add records of approximately 3 million items (1.2 million titles) held by 15 public and academic libraries mainly on the rural “Western Slope” of Colorado. “It’s very cool that Marmot libraries will be able to offer over 30 million items,” states Jimmy Thomas, Director of the Marmot Library Network. “Thanks to library cooperation, a federal grant will benefit not only rural readers but also urban readers all over Colorado.”

Prospector is based on INN-Reach software by Innovative and hosted by the Alliance in Denver, CO. Tom Jacobson, Director of Strategic Accounts for Innovative Interfaces states: “Reciprocal borrowing, enabled by INN-Reach, is a powerful and inexpensive way for libraries to enhance what they offer their patrons.”
Interlibrary loans between Marmot and Prospector libraries—across the Continental Divide—are expected to increase substantially. The statewide courier service operated by the Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC) already routes library materials within Prospector and Marmot service areas.

This project is substantially funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through a Library Services & Technology Act (LSTA) allocation to the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) and the Colorado State Library (CSL). This largest LSTA 2010 grant in Colorado is reminiscent of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) because of its direct benefits for rural and remote areas.

About the Marmot Library Network
The Marmot Library Network (http://www.marmot.org), based in Grand Junction, CO, is a non-profit organization providing information technology services to public, academic, and school libraries. Marmot hosts software and a database shared by 20 institutions comprising 90 library sites in Colorado; and provides internet, hardware, and software support services for libraries.

About the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries
The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (http://www.coalliance.org) is a non-profit consortium of thirteen libraries in Colorado and Wyoming. It is a long term partnership of academic, special, and public libraries with a history of working in concert to share resources through cooperative purchasing, online services, systems management, and consulting. The major initiatives of the Alliance include the Prospector union catalog, Gold Rush (a locally developed A-Z/linker/ERM system), and the Alliance Digital Repository.

About Innovative Interfaces
Innovative Interfaces (www.iii.com) dedicates its energies to meeting the needs of libraries and the challenges of library automation. The company has fulfilled this mission with first-rate services and products such as the Millennium integrated library platform, INN-Reach resource sharing, Electronic Resource Management, and the Encore discovery services platform. Today, thousands of libraries of all types in over 50 countries rely on Innovative’s products, services, and support. The company is located in Emeryville, California with offices around the world.

Contact
The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries
Alan Charnes
Executive Director
alan@coalliance.org
1.303.759.3399 x104

Marmot Library Network
Jimmy Thomas
Executive Director
jimmy@marmot.org
1.970.242.3331 x119

Innovative Interfaces
Gene Shimshock
Vice President, Marketing
genes@iii.com
1.510.655.6200

Prospector: a Well Traveled Resource!

October 8, 2010

Now that the new Prospector interface has been up for almost two months, we have captured some interesting statistics about the use of the new site. Prospector has had almost 124,000 site visits over half of which–53% to be exact–are from new comers. The average time spent on the site is about 8 1/2 minutes. This is quite lengthy when considering the average time spent on most websites is closer to 3 minutes. While most of the traffic to Prospector is from Front Range cities such as Denver, Fort Collins, Westminster and Boulder, visitors have also made their way from western and eastern Colorado and Wyoming, including such places as Laramie, Durango, Gunnison, Grand Junction, Hugo and Limon. People search for all kinds of things on Prospector from scientific and research journals to music CDs and DVDs to text books and popular fiction. Visitors are also coming to Prospector through mobile devices with the iPhone being the most popular followed by the Adroid, iPad, iPod and Blackberry.

Denver Public Library Requesting Restored

October 6, 2010

Patrons from Denver Public Library may now place requests through Prospector again. Due to a technical difficulty on Tuesday (Oct 5th), DPL patrons were unable to request materials through Prospector. However, the problem has been resolved.

Colorado State University- Pueblo Joins Prospector

September 15, 2010

On September 15, 2010, Colorado State University-Pueblo went live as the 26th library in the Prospector system. This means that their library holdings are available for lending and that CSU-Pueblo faculty/staff/students may now borrow from other libraries in Prospector.

CSU-Pueblo has over 5,000 students and is nestled in a historically and culturally rich community of more than 100,000 people. The campus started in 1933 when it began as a three-room junior college with 63 students and two instructors; it officially became a four-year university in 1965. Colorado State University-Pueblo became the new name in 2003.

CSU-Pueblo’s library is currently under renovation but their rich collections are still available through Prospector. Their collection includes:

• 188,000+ books
• 247,000+ government documents
• 13,000+ CDs, DVDs, and videocassettes
• Access to over 20,000 print and online journals
• Access to over 100 online databases
• University Archives and Special Collections

With the addition of CSU-Pueblo, Prospector has now passed 9.75 million unique titles with over 27 million copies. The system includes printed books, ebooks, journals, movies, music and many other items.

More information about CSU-Pueblo may be found on their Website at http://library.colostate-pueblo.edu/index.html

More information about Prospector may be obtained from your local library or by contacting the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries at help@coalliance.org

Prospector’s New Look

August 11, 2010

On Wednesday, August 18th, Prospector launched a brand new look. It still offers the same great features as before but it has a more modern and improved interface. We haven’t replaced any of the content in Prospector; we’ve just updated the interface to make it easier to find what you need.

Highlights of the new Prospector include:

  • Colorful book jackets
  • Cloud tags to narrow your search
  • Facets to narrow a search by format, language, place, or publishing date
  • Ability to email yourself a list of records
  • Explore related searches-generate a new search on new term

Here are some frequently asked questions (FAQs) about Prospector and it’s new appearance.

  1. What is URL of the new Prospector Discovery service?

    http://www.coalliance.org/prospector This is the new Prospector launch page and we recommend that you bookmark this address for linking to the “top” of Prospector

  2. Will the old Prospector service still be available?

    Yes the old Prospector WebPAC is still fully supported and will not change. However, after August 18th we will redirect users who go to the http://prospector.coalliance.org to the new launch page. To go to the old Prospector start page use http://prospector.coalliance.org/search~S0

  3. When should I use the old interface and what are key missing features in the new environment?
    • If you want to do advanced Boolean searches, specialized number searches or specific fielded browses (e.g. subject headings browse, title browse) the old system should be used
    • The “Find More Resources” button in the old system which links out to WorldCat, Google Books and eCommerce sites is only available in Prospector classic at this time
    • The “Request Article” button that directs users to link resolvers or article finder forms at local sites is only available in Prospector classic at this time

  4. On the new Prospector launch page there is a pull down box with many different kinds of searches; why do some go to the new discovery interface and others go to Prospector classic?

    The “keyword” search in the new launch page initiates a search in the new discovery interface. It is optimized to handle title, author, subject and other key terms in a highly-efficient single-index search and display algorithm. However, all of the other searches in the launch page go to specific indexes in the classic Prospector system. By putting them all on the launch page, experienced users can start whatever type of search they want without having to find the old system. Only the “keyword” search launches the new discovery interface.

  5. Why does Requesting an item go to Prospector Classic?

    Once an item has been found in the new Prospector discovery layer and the user wants to request it, the user will be routed to Prospector classic to complete their request. The request process will take place in a new smaller window so that the person can easily go back to the discovery layer.


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