Western Libraries participation in this 34 member alliance of academic libraries in Washington and Oregon has brought a number of benefits to Western’s faculty and students. Not the least of these is the ability for our Western community members to borrow any title any of the libraries circulates to its own borrowers. Our patrons initiate borrowing by linking to the "Summit" catalog from our own online library catalog, choosing the item they wish to borrow, then filling out a simple online form. Most items are delivered in two working days. The combined catalog, called "Summit" has some 9,082,000 bibliographic records, representing some 28,407,100 physical items. 67% of the items are owned by only one library in the group. Western’s Summit record for the past four years: Year # of Items we borrowed # of items we lent to others 2003/04 11,284 15,104 2004/05 14,111 16,703 2005/06 16,040 19,611 2006/07 15,496 13,629 The consortium statistics for FY 06: Top stats All requests 358,175 Requests filled 335,789 Fill rate (Requests fulfilled) 94% Requested titles owned by only 1 member 25% Requested titles owned by 5 or more 42% Non-book items loaned: more than 6%

Western Libraries | 516 High Street | Bellingham, WA 98225-9103

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