[Libs-Or] Mount Hood Community College: 31st Member of the Orbis Cascade Alliance

[John F Helmer]

NEWS RELEASE
June 15, 2004

The Orbis Cascade Alliance is pleased to announce that Mount Hood
Community College is now a member of the Alliance.

Mount Hood Community College's database of more than 64,000 volumes will
be included in Summit, the Orbis Cascade Alliance's union catalog and
borrowing system.  Inclusion of MHCC will enhance this union catalog of
more than 25 million books, sound recordings, films, videos, and more.

Mount Hood Community College is the 31st member and the fourth community
college to join the Orbis Cascade Alliance, a library consortium serving
the equivalent of more than 200,000 full-time students at private and
public colleges and universities throughout Washington and Oregon.

For more information see

Mount Hood Community College Library
http://library.mhcc.edu/

Orbis Cascade Alliance
http://www.orbiscascade.org/

Background
==========
The Orbis Cascade Alliance is a library consortium serving private and
public colleges and universities throughout Washington and Oregon.

Major activities include:

Summit Borrowing
----------------
The Orbis Cascade Alliance supports Summit, a popular self-service
materials request system based on III's INN-Reach software.  Although
distances between member libraries can exceed 500 miles, faculty and
students are able to access a unified library collection on the Web from
their library, office or home. This system allows patrons to use the
resources of all member libraries as a single unified library collection.
Summit currently includes records for more than 24 million books, sound
recordings, films, videos, etc.  At peak times, Summit is used to deliver
more than 1,000 books each day. Five new member catalogs will be added to
Summit over the coming year:  Clark College, Mount Hood Community College
Portland Community College, Saint Martin's College, and Seattle
University. http://summit.orbiscascade.org/

Electronic resource purchasing
------------------------------
The Orbis Cascade Alliance purchases electronic resources such as
e-journals, e-books, commercial databases, and reference tools, providing
access to 60 resources for more than 200 libraries in the Northwest.

Courier service
---------------
The Orbis Cascade Alliance administers a courier program providing daily
pick-up and delivery of library materials.  This courier program serves
220+ libraries through more than 60 courier stops in Oregon, Washington,
and Idaho.  More than 214,000 packages are delivered annually via the
Alliance courier system. http://www.orbiscascade.org/courier/

Conferences & continuing education
----------------------------------
The Orbis Cascade Alliance organizes or supports a variety of workshops
and conferences and serves as fiscal agent for the Acquisitions Institute
at Timberline Lodge.  http://libweb.uoregon.edu/events/aitl/

Orbis Cascade Alliance member institutions
--------------------------------------------
Central Oregon Community College
Central Washington University
Clark College *
Eastern Oregon University
Eastern Washington University
George Fox University
Lewis and Clark College
Linfield College
Marylhurst University
Mount Hood Community College *
Oregon Health & Science University
Oregon Institute of Technology
Oregon State University
Pacific University
Portland Community College *
Portland State University
Reed College
Saint Martin's College *
Seattle Pacific University
Seattle University *
Southern Oregon University
The Evergreen State College
University of Oregon
University of Portland
University of Puget Sound
University of Washington
Washington State University
Western Oregon University
Western Washington University
Whitman College
Willamette University

* = New member institution scheduled for inclusion in Summit.
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Contacts for more information

Mount Hood Community College
-----------------------------------------------------
 Jan Marie Fortier, Ph.D.
 Director, Learning Resource Center
 Mount Hood Community College
 fortierj at mhcc.edu

Orbis Cascade Alliance
-----------------------------------------------------
 Deborah Carver, Council Chair
 University Librarian
 University of Oregon
 dcarver at uoregon.edu

 John F. Helmer
 Executive Director
 Orbis Cascade Alliance
 jhelmer at uoregon.edu
 v: 541.346.1835
 f: 541.346.1968
 1299 University of Oregon
 Eugene, Oregon 97403-1299

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