2025 Prospector Reconciliation Instructions & Timeline!

The Prospector Reconciliation Process is an annual activity that all Prospector participants complete in order to identify items that were loaned in the previous year that have not been returned. How you identify items that are considered long overdue will vary depending on how your library interacts with Prospector and/or which Integrated Library System you use – details for each system are outlined below. Please note that Steps 1, 2, and 3 apply only to libraries that were actively LENDING in 2024. If you did not begin lending until 2025, or are currently participating in Prospector as a borrowing library only, you only need to complete steps 4 and 5, which will commence in January of 2026!

Step 1: Run Institutional Overdue Report

For Lenders that use Sierra and the Resource Sharing Broker (RSB)

Use the Millennium INN-Reach report “Institutional Overdue” to find your items loaned to other INN-Reach libraries in 2024 that remain unreturned. The Sierra and RSB report requires a “Minimum days” and “Maximum” entry.   The “Minimum day” entry is the current day of this year and the maximum is that number of days + 365. 

Example: If running Report on Nov. 13, 2025

            Minimum Days: (the current day of the year) – ex. if run Sept 18  would be “317”

            Maximum Days:  (Minimum value + 365)  = “682”

These parameters will produce a report of your items still checked out to an Inn-reach patron, with a due date in 2024. Depending on what day you produce the report, those “Minimum” and “Maximum” numbers will obviously change. Here’s an Epoch Converter site you can reference any time to find the current day of the year.

*Note: For SWIFT RSB libraries that use Sierra Web AND are actively lending, please reach out to [email protected] for assistance outputting report data (there is not an easy way to export report data in spreadsheet form from the Sierra Web interface, but we can help!).

For Lenders that use Polaris

• Use the INN-Reach Institutional Overdues Report
• Right Click on report and select Output Type of CSV
• Double Click on Institutional Overdues 
• Select Organizations (branch or All)
• Enter the minimum number of days
• Click Submit

For Lenders that use Koha

• Prospector/SWIFT Lending – Reconciliation Report (4594)
  • In the Reports Module, go to Saved Searches
  • Select the SWIFT/Prospector tab
  • Click the Run button for report 4594
  • Select Branchcode from menu (will default to your branch, based on login)
  • Click Run the report

o   Click Download to export results in CSV

Step 2: Search your library for your items – Nov/Dec 2025

When the resulting report is compiled, the owning library searches for their own long-overdue items on their own shelves, on the chance that some of the items were shelved without being checked in. Check in any found items and remove them from your list.

Step 3: Share report of unfound items – By Dec. 31, 2025

After the list has been completely searched at the home library and any found items removed from the list, email your list of remaining long-overdue items to Gwyndolyn Davis [email protected] in excel spreadsheet format, containing the following headers:

*Note: It is important to include both the Barcode and Call Number. For Institutional Overdue lists produced using Sierra or the RSB, the Call Number field can be changed to Barcode by right-clicking on the header. Please be sure to ADD a column and capture both data points (barcode and call number) on your list.

Gwyndolyn will compile each library’s list into one master search list.

Step 4: Search your library for other libraries’ items – Jan/Feb 2025

In early January, Gwyndolyn Davis will send the master list of all unfound items out to all libraries and each library simultaneously searches their shelves for listed items loaned TO their library (Borrowing Library tab) as well as taking another look for listed items owned BY their library (Owning Library tab).  Check in and return all found items to the owning library. Share found item info on the Prospector listserv.

Step 5: Report Out and Clean Up – March 2025

After all libraries have completed the search of their own shelves for the long-overdue items, the Gwyndolyn Davis will compile and share information regarding found items as well as a summary Reconciliation Report. Each home library then takes steps to take their long-overdue items out of circulation.  Please contact the borrowing libraries before checking in or otherwise clearing Prospector transactions on items lent from your library to avoid accidentally crediting lost item charges to their patron’s account.