Information about Summit Borrowing

Summit Borrowing is an interlibrary loan service for currently enrolled students, faculty, and staff of Walla Walla Universtiy, an Orbis Cascade Alliance member institution. The Orbis Cascade Alliance has thirty-three member institutions, with a selection of over 8 million different titles in the Summit Catalog. Summit borrowing may be used through the Walla Walla Universtiy Library Catalog or the Summit Catalog. Books from Summit may be requested by searching either catalog.

How do I request an item?

Items may be requested directly through the Summit Catalog. If you are searching the Walla Walla Universtiy Library Catalog, you may choose to repeat your search in Summit. You can do this by selecting the "Search Summit" button on the right hand side of your screen. This button will repeat the last search that you did in the Summit Catalog. You may also initiate a request by searching the Summit catalog directly. The same searches, title, author, keyword, subject, etc, that are available in the Walla Walla Universtiy Catalog are available in the Summit Catalog.

Once you have identified an item that you want to borrow, you should follow the onscreen instructions. Begin with "Request this item," and then put in your name, universtiy ID number, and PIN number*, followed by where you want to pick up the item. Currently you may pick up items either at Peterson Memorial Library on the College Place campus, or at the Portland School of Nursing Library on the WWU Portland nursing campus. If the item is available, you should receive the message that your request was successful and materials will be available for you to pick up at the location you specified within four - five days.

*What is a PIN Number?

Your PIN number is your password. You will need to create this password before you can use Summit Borrowing or checkout from any of the other member institutions (like Whitman College).

To create your PIN number, go to the Walla Walla Universtiy Library's home page. From the home page select the blue "Access your Account" button. The system will prompt you to fill in your name & your universtiy ID number. If you have never created a PIN number before, leave the space for the PIN number blank and click submit. It will then give you two places to type in your PIN. Choose a password - more than six characters is best and they can be numbers or letters - and select submit again. You should be ready to request items through Summit Borrowing.

What should you do if you forget your PIN number or you aren't certain if you've created one before? Call the Walla Walla University Library circulation desk and the circulation workers can reset your password for you.

What can I request through Summit Borrowing?

All member libraries willgenerally loan circulating books. Items in archives or special collections may be excluded. Some libraries loan other materials such as videos, DVDs, and CDs. When you request an item the system will let you know if it is available, or you can select the button that says "# Summit Libraries own this item" to see whether or not the status is "available" or "local use only." If it is "local use only," the item cannot be requested.

How will I know when I can pick up my requests?

Items requested from Summit should arrive in about four days. The best way to be certain that an item is available for pick-up is to check your library account.

To do this, visit the library web page and select "Access your account" When you have entered your account, you will see a link that says # requests (holds). If you select that link, it will list the things that you have requested and their status. Once it has been sent from the library you requested it from, it will say "In Transit". When your item says "Received" beside it, you should be able to pick it up at the WWU Library circulation desk. You will have five days from the time it arrives to pick it up - then it will be sent back to the lending library and you will need to re-request if you are still interested in looking at the item.

When you are in "Access Your Account" you can also cancel holds you no longer need, renew items online (from WWU or from Summit, most Summit items may be renewed once), and change your password.

What if something doesn't work?

If you have difficulties requesting you should talk to a librarian! We'll be more than happy to work through the problems with you. If you would like assistance searching the Summit catalog, we'll be happy to give you tips for that too.