Orbis
and Cascade, two successful academic library consortia, have merged to create
the Orbis Cascade Alliance, a private & public collaborative venture
serving faculty and students in
- Members
include 26 colleges, universities, and community colleges throughout
Oregon and Washington.
- The new union catalog will
include over 22 million books, sound recordings, films, maps and more.
- Faculty, staff and students
at member institutions can request and borrow many materials through the
catalog.
Creating
the new union catalog: Records from the Cascade catalog will be loaded into the
Orbis catalog, expected to last throughout the summer. Later this summer new catalog features
will be added. New indexes to be
added in the summer: Genre Index and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). Journal Scoping, or limiting searches
to serials and periodicals, is anticipated for the fall.
Searching
Until record loading is completed,
holdings for specific titles at Cascade sites may be available only in the
local catalog.
Special
notes for Cascade and all Alliance libraries.
Requesting & Borrowing materials
Students,
faculty and staff from member institutions will be able to request materials as
soon as records begin loading.
During
the summer, while records are loading, it is suggested that patrons first
search their local catalog and, if permitted, make requests through the local
catalog.
Authorized
users (current faculty, students and staff and retired faculty and staff of
member institutions) can easily request books located at one of the
participating libraries. Once you have found an item that you would like to
borrow, click on the Request Item button. A window will appear for you to
identify your institution; from there follow the instructions. The item will be
delivered to your pick-up location in a few days. Authorized users can also go
directly to one of the member libraries and check items out in person.
During
a transition period this summer and fall, union catalog requests for materials
available at the local institution will not be allowed. If your library allows
requests for materials available locally, place those requests through your
local catalog, not the Alliance union catalog.
Borrowing
policies include:
- Must be current faculty,
student, staff or retired faculty/staff at a member institution.
- Borrowing is free for
authorized users.
- Most items are checked out
for 21 days with 1 renewal.
Some non-book materials may be borrowed for 3 days, no renewal.
- Materials can be returned to
any member library.
- Borrowers will be responsible
for overdue fines and replacement costs for lost books.
Progress of
Summit record loading and patron requesting
For Former Cascade sites
o
Search locally - Patrons and staff should
search their local catalog first. Records that appear in the local catalog of former
Cascade sites may not yet be present in the union catalog. Repeating a search
from the local catalog record may result in the message “This item does not
exist in the Orbis Cascade database.”
o
Request locally - During the summer, while
records are loading it is suggested that patrons first search their local
catalog and make requests at that point, as permitted. If the local site’s
record has not yet been loaded into the union catalog, the patron will be requesting
materials from a remote site while it might well already be available locally.
This will save time and effort of everyone.
For all Alliance sites
o
Looking for journals, periodicals, serials? During
the transition period, summer through fall, neither the Journals Only version
of the catalog (“journal scoping”) nor the Journal Title Index will be
complete. You may need to search both to find materials.
o
Material not available? For
materials not available at your local library, or through the union catalog,
please contact inter-library loan services at your local library.
o Have questions? Need help? Please ask staff at any member library.
Search the Orbis
Cascade Alliance catalog