Our Information Resources
The Pacific University Libraries are committed to empowering all learners to become proficient, ethical information consumers and creators who are able to find, evaluate, integrate, and communicate information critical to their academic, personal, and professional lives. In support of this, the Libraries provide information services and resources to all students, faculty and staff across Pacific’s campuses and online programs. To aid in using these resources and services, Libraries faculty and staff can help in person and online by answering questions, providing research consultations, and working with groups or classes. Orientations and instruction sessions are available across all Pacific’s undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs, and can be individualized to meet specific learning objectives or research needs.
Through both our physical and online collections, the Libraries provide access to books, e-books, journal and magazine articles, audio and video media, and a variety of database and search tools to help in finding relevant resources. The Libraries also participate in resource sharing partnerships that provide access to resources owned by other libraries around the region and world.
Physical Collections
The Libraries’ collections in the Tim and Cathy Tran Library, Hillsboro Campus Library, and Eugene and Woodburn resource collections combine to hold over 148,000 print books. The Libraries’ physical collections also include print journals, DVDs, CDs and LPs, music scores, microform, and rare books. The University Archives, located in the Tran Library, hold documents, photographs, and other primary research materials focused on the history of Pacific, Washington County, and the Pacific Northwest.
Databases
Research databases are organized collections of digital information or data like periodical articles, books, graphics, and multimedia that can be searched to retrieve general or subject-oriented information with bibliographic citations, abstracts, and or full text. The sources indexed are generally written by scholars, professionals, or generalists and are peer-reviewed. The Libraries provide access to over 250 research databases covering a variety of disciplines.
E-journals
An electronic journal (E-journal) is a regularly published compilation of scholarly or research articles published in electronic format, usually accessed either directly through a journal’s website or via a database that aggregates information about the articles published in thousands of journals. The Libraries provide access to over 50,000 journal titles.
E-books
Electronic books (e-books) are published in a variety of formats, some which closely resemble traditional print books and others which are more interactive. The format and functionality of each e-book depends on the publisher and platform through which the book is hosted. The Libraries provide access to e-books from a variety of publishers, and generally try to purchase e-books that are free of usage/download restrictions. In total, the Libraries currently have access to over 290,000 e-books.
Course Reserves
The Libraries are committed to working with faculty to ensure that students are able to access required course readings. For books or media only available in physical format, instructors may request that these materials be placed on course reserve at the front desk of the Tran or Hillsboro Campus libraries. By placing materials on reserve, which includes only short borrowing periods (from several hours to a few days), more students in the course are able to access the Libraries’ copies of these resources.
Faculty are able to add electronic copies of required course readings to their Moodle courses. The Libraries can assist faculty with scanning and putting limited portions of print materials (e.g. a book chapter or journal article) into their Moodle course; faculty can also link directly to e-journal articles, e-books, or streaming media to which the Libraries already have access.
Subject Guides
The Libraries creates and maintains online subject guides, both general and course-related, to support asynchronous student learning by curating direct access to databases and specific library resources (e.g. e-books, journals, streaming videos, etc.) that are most relevant to a subject or discipline. These guides often also contain tutorials about how to use specific library resources (e.g. how to effectively search in a certain database) or about general research strategies; these tutorials may be text and image-based, or may be short videos. The goal of the guides is to save researchers time by directing them to relevant tools and resources for their topic or discipline.
Interlibrary Loan
For physical resources not available through Summit, or for digital resources (i.e. copies of journal articles or book chapters), the Libraries’ Interlibrary Loan service, allows students, faculty, and staff to request materials from other libraries for free. Requests can be placed using ILLiad, the Libraries’ interlibrary lending platform. Physical items will be delivered either to the requestor’s home campus library or may be mailed directly to individuals who are not based at the Forest Grove or Hillsboro campuses. Digital items are delivered directly to your ILLiad account for download.
Summit
Summit is a resource sharing partnership among 38 academic libraries throughout Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Resources (books and audio-visual media) from these libraries appear in the Libraries catalog and can be requested through the catalog for delivery to the Tran or Hillsboro Campus libraries (on the Eugene campus, Summit materials may be requested through the LCC catalog for delivery to LCC). Requests usually arrive within 3-4 business days.
Distance Learning
All Libraries resources and services are available to distance learners (students in fully online degree programs, those participating in extended off-site learning experiences, and those students students, staff, and faculty unable to come to” Forest Grove or Hillsboro). Distance learners can use their PUNetID to access all online library resources and to request resources through Interlibrary Loan. For requested articles and book chapters, PDFs will be delivered into your ILLiad account. For physical library materials, such as books and DVDs, the Libraries’ Interlibrary Services team will send items right to your mailing address, free of charge. Before the due date, you can mail loans back to us with the free prepaid FedEx ground label included in your package.
Depending on their location, distance learners may also have access to Summit Libraries in Oregon, Washington, or Idaho. Ask nearby libraries about their Visiting Summit Patron policies. Some libraries will “adopt” you as a patron so you can pick up Summit items. Distance learners may also use their Pacific University ID card to sign up for accounts at public libraries in Oregon who participate in the Oregon Library Passport Program.