Education Resources for Distance and Online Students: Summit and Interlibrary Loan

Students, faculty, and staff of the University of Idaho have access to the physical library collections of the 38 other member libraries of the Orbis Cascade Alliance, including universities such as the University of Washington, Washington State University, Oregon State University, and the University of Oregon.

The combined collections of over 28.7 million books, CD's, DVD's, and scores can be easily discovered and requested through the University of Idaho Library's catalog. Once requested, most items will arrive within less than a week. Print items can be checked out for six weeks, and A/V materials for six days. There is no charge for use of Orbis Cascade Alliance resources.

Although the Orbis Cascade Alliance has a lot of materials, there may be a few items not available through our partner libraries. If you come across a book that the Alliance doesn't have, we'll borrow it from somewhere else and pass it along to you. Please be aware that while we mail books to you free of charge, you need to pay your own postage to return them to us.

FOR BOOKS:

After you've done a UI+Summit+E-Resources search in Primo, you may encounter books with a "Check Access Options" link. This means the UI Library doesn't have the book or that our copy is checked out, but one of our partner libraries in the Orbis Cascade Alliance has the book available.

To request the book, click the title or "Check Access Options," then "Place Summit Request." 

If you are a distance student, staff, or faculty member, you can select "Home Address" from the dropdown.  We'll use the address that the university has on file for you to mail your book.  Please be aware that it may take 3-5 days for us to receive the book before we can put it in the mail.

FOR JOURNAL ARTICLES:

After you've done a search in Primo or a database, you may find that the UI Library doesn't subscribe electronically to an article you need. 

Use the "Request from Interlibrary Loan" link. You'll receive an email from ILL once your article is available for download. Please note this process usually takes 24-48 hours, but may occasionally take longer. 

FOR BOOKS NOT AVAILABLE THROUGH SUMMIT:

If you know about a book you want but don't see that any of our consortia partners have it, you can also request it through ILL. Just login to the ILL page, and fill out as much information about the book as possible.