"SWIFT" was a new word heard buzzing around the Colorado Library Association (CLA) conference last month. What is SWIFT? It stands for "State Wide Interlibrary loan Fast Track," the name of Colorado's new Fretwell-Downing, Inc., interlibrary loan software used for statewide resource sharing.

Thanks to Brenda Bailey-Hainer's informative presentation, librarians attending CLA learned all about SWIFT. She is the Director of Network and Resource Sharing for the Colorado State Library. Also presenting was Jean Madsen, Colorado State Library's SWIFT Coordinator.

The attendees learned that SWIFT is the web-based electronic interlibrary loan requesting and tracking system that the Colorado State Library is providing to all libraries in the state. Bailey-Hainer said, "It's a multi-type system, available at no charge to all public, academic, school and special libraries in Colorado. About 100 libraries are currently using the system and twice that are expected to be signed up by early summer."

The software that makes SWIFT possible is Virtual Document eXchange, or VDX, produced by Fretwell Downing, Inc., a global leader in the evolution of digital libraries. The SWIFT pilot program was launched in Colorado in April, 2001, and, by September, was available to all libraries in the state. In that short time, Colorado libraries have already sent 10,000 requests through the system.

Also part of the CLA SWIFT presentation were interlibrary loan "end-users" Kurtis Kelly of the Estes Park Public Library and Becky Nelson of the Salida Regional. Kelly enthused, "The Estes Park library likes SWIFT because we've discovered there are about 1.5 million holdings available through SWIFT that aren't available through OCLC." Bailey-Hainer agreed, adding, "SWIFT is a wonderful complement to OCLC because it provides an electronic solution for libraries that previously had no way of doing interlibrary loans electronically."

Pointing out another key feature offered by SWIFT, Nelson said, "The Salida Regional Library has saved money because SWIFT reduces the cost of doing interlibrary loans." She added, "Our patrons are happy, too, because SWIFT has speeded up the delivery of the materials they've requested." What's more, Nelson reported that since she's been using SWIFT, she's been able to fill the bulk of ILL requests within the state of Colorado through SWIFT, instead of needing to go outside the state.

At the meeting, Bailey-Hainer and Madsen also demonstrated for the librarians the patron-initiated interlibrary loan function of Fretwell-Downing's VDX. This will be an additional SWIFT feature that should be available in early 2002.