Orbis Cascade Alliance

The Orbis Cascade Alliance is a growing consortium of college and university libraries in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. SPU's membership in the Alliance provides current students, faculty, and staff access to more than 28 million books and other materials in the combined collections.

You may search for Alliance-owned materials directly by going to Summit, the Orbis Cascade Alliance catalog, or by searching the SPU WorldCat and Beyond. In SPU WorldCat and Beyond, SPU owned items are listed first, then Orbis Cascade Alliance items are listed  with the location "Summit Libraries."

Borrowing materials from Orbis Cascade Alliance libraries

The Summit borrowing system allows you to request items owned by other Alliance libraries. When you find an item that you want to borrow in Summit, follow the on-screen instructions, starting with "Request This Item." The system will ask you for your name and your university ID number.  If an item is not available through Summit borrowing you will recieve a non-supply email from the system.

• Requested items usually arrive within three to five business days.
• Once the item has been received, you will be sent an email notification. (You may also check your library records for the status of your requests.)
• You will then have three to seven days to pick up the item from the Circulation Desk depending upon item type.

Member institutions of the Alliance have adopted standard policies and procedures to ensure uniform and fair handling of all requests.

All member institutions have made a commitment to rapid delivery and a standard loan period of six weeks for most items. Some special items such as videos may only circulate for three days. There are no renewals for Summit materials.

Fines for late or lost materials are charged to students, staff, and faculty. Alliance overdue fines are usually $0.50 per day for the first 10 days, then $1 per day for the next 15 days.

Check out materials directly from other Orbis Cascade Alliance Libraries

As a current SPU faculty, staff member, or student, you are welcome at any of the Alliance member libraries. You will need to be adopted by the other library the first time you visit.

To do this, the circulation worker at the other institution will have you log in to your SPU patron record and use the information shown to create a record in their system.

Note: When you check an item out directly from another member library, you will not receive a courtesy reminder about the due date from SPU. As always, you are responsible for returning the item on or before its due date to any Alliance-member library.

If you would like to have Summit-borrowed items delivered to you at another institution, you will need to be "adopted" (see above) and then request Summit items as if you are one of their students.

If you have questions about the library services that are available to you from the Orbis Cascade Alliance, contact the SPU Circulation Desk at 206-281-2228 or circ@spu.edu.