There are two systems through which WOU students, faculty, and staff can obtain books from other libraries that we don’t have in Hamersly: Summit and Interlibrary Loan. What does this mean for you? It’s a matter of time: Summit items get to you in 3-5 days, while Interlibrary Loan items take longer, sometimes up to two weeks.

Summit is the shared catalog and borrowing system of the Orbis Cascade Alliance, a consortium of academic libraries in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. This special partnership makes it faster for us to borrow items from Summit libraries and for this reason, it is used to request most books, videos, and CDs that WOU does not own. Interlibrary Loan, consisting of all libraries except the Summit libraries, is used to request articles from journals and any books, videos, and CDs not available in Summit libraries.

The moral of the story? If WOU doesn’t have what you need, request through Summit when possible. If requesting through Interlibrary Loan is your only option, just be aware that it will likely take longer than you’re used to with Summit. No matter what system, however, the library can almost always get you what you need!