The Orbis Cascade Alliance is a consortium of 35 Northwest academic libraries. Through its membership in this group Reed participates in the Alliance union catalog (Summit) and the patron initiated borrowing system Summit supports.
Over the course of the next few months the consortium will be migrating the Summit union catalog to a different platform. The new version of Summit will be an OCLC-based WorldCat Group catalog with an interface based on WorldCat.org. Searching this union catalog will retrieve results based on the Alliance collections, followed by results from the rest of WorldCat, the world’s largest online database of library holdings. This approach will provide users with a closer integration of Summit and Interlibrary Loan borrowing, backed by the considerable expertise and resources of OCLC.
Undertaking a change of such a key library service is not something we do lightly. Reed faculty and students are avid users of Summit borrowing, topping the charts of per capita use of the system. We will make every effort to sustain or improve the types of service you have come to expect from Summit. As with all such changes, we likely will experience some implementation challenges. However, the potential rewards are significant in terms of affordability, sustainability, and future functionality.
Library staff will keep you informed of our progress and will provide ample instruction in the use of the new system. As always, we appreciate your patience and support, and would welcome your suggestions.