Distance Education

Ways to get books and other physical materials:

Search for books in Primo Library Search, login to place a hold and see request and pickup options. Place a local hold request for books owned by Foley Library, or select Request via Summit to get a book through one of our consortia partners. If you live more than 35 miles from campus books can be mailed to you.

See our Summit Guide for more information on how to request books and other materials via Summit.

Materials unavailable through Foley or our Summit partners can be requested through Interlibrary Loan.

The Primo Library Search box on the library homepage is like Google for the library. It searches across a wide variety of resources, including our physical catalog, electronic resources and many of our databases. Primo Library Search serves as the library catalog and the only way to search for books, eBooks, music, videos, and “things” like puzzles and board games.

Library Search is a great place to start looking for articles and books on a topic, but for powerful, targeted searches that use subject headings or a controlled vocabulary, try a database specific to your discipline or topic.

ALWAYS SIGN IN! Signing in gives you more complete results, the ability to request items, and the best access to available online resources. The yellow bar across the results screen is an hard-to-miss reminder to sign in.

Types of availability

• Online access: Often a link to the full text of the article, eBook, or streaming video will be provided.
• Available at Foley: Physical resource at Foley can be in the General Collection, popular, reference etc. Our building maps will help you find the physical locations.   Pay attention, books with locations at Chastek Library are available on campus at the Law school. Our catalog also lists books at the Gonzaga in Florence Library, in Italy.
• Requesting options: If Foley doesn't own it, you can request physical items through Summit or Interlibrary Loan (ILL); articles can only be requested through ILL.
  • Summit is the borrowing system within the Orbis Cascade Library consortium, that we are a member of. This consortium includes libraries in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.
  • ILL is a sharing system between libraries world wide. Articles and physical materials can be requested through ILL. Articles are sent electronically.

Searching instructions from graphic:

1. Enter keywords in the search box on the library homepage. Keep it simple.
2. Sign in to get complete results, request items and get access to online resources.
3. Select options on the left (facets) to apply filters and refine your results.
4. Search results can include articles, books, videos, and more!

Foley Library can mail books to distance education students who live more than 35 miles from campus. We are unable to mail books to students studying abroad.

Please be aware of the following guidelines for returning books:

• You are responsible for return postage.
• Package books to avoid damage - use the same box or envelope they came in if it's in good condition.
• Retain all tracking information until you've had confirmation that the item has been received and checked in on the library's end. You are responsible for items lost or damaged in transit.
• If it's close to the due date, send an email to ill@gonzaga.edu to let us know the books are on their way.
• COMING TO SPOKANE?  If you are coming to campus and would prefer to return books at that time, let us know: ill@gonzaga.edu.
• A yellow return address label is included with books we send to you. You may also use the return address label provided below.