I need help from a live person!
We can help. Get in touch with a reference librarian through phone or email reference at Ask A Librarian. Need materials renewed, mailed to you, etc? Check with Circulation & Access Services.

Can I check out (or renew) books from the Kresge LIbrary?
Yes. You have the same library privileges as on-campus students, plus some they don't, like the ability to have materials mailed to your home (see next entry). But, you will need to have an activated library account to use any of our library services.

How Do I get a library card/library account?
To activate your library account, call or email the Circulation Desk. Normally, your library card is your OU Grizzly Card (ID). However, if you do not yet have a ID card, the library will assign you a library card number to use in place of your Grizzly card.

If you happen to be on campus doing research, consider stopping by the ID Card Office and getting an OU ID made. You can use this ID (a Grizzly card) to get 25 free printouts per semester from the Kresge Library (and other computer labs)!

Can you send books and other materials to me?

Distance education students need to register in ILLiad (a service provided by the Interlibrary Loan Department) as either Distance Education Undergraduate Student or Distance Education Graduate Student. Using ILLiad, students can request that materials held at Kresge Library be sent to them using the options under the "Request Books and Articles OWNED by Oakland University" heading . Additionally, materials that are not available at Kresge Library can be acquired and sent to students by using ILLiad and the options provided under the heading "Request Books and Articles NOT OWNED by Oakland University". Please note, however, that any student taking classes on campus may not have items mailed to them. This service is exclusively reserved for distance education students.

My professor told me they put something on "Reserve". What does that mean?
Electronic Reserves are materials that have been placed into the "reserves" section of the Library Catalog. Go to the library catalog and select the "Reserves" tab, or use this direct link to Reserves. Then, simply input as much information as you have on hand (course # is usually enough, but if more than one professor is teaching the course, you may see his/her reserves, as well as your own instructor's). You will be required to log into Voyager to view this material. The first time you do so, the system will then take you back to the list of course materials for the class, at which point any link you follow will open the selected material as an Adobe Acrobat PDF. You'll need a fairly recent version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these files.

I'm being asked to log in when I try to find articles. What do I do?
You're likely being asked to log in to our proxy server for Kresge Library Database Access (Find out why you need to log in to the proxy server). If you can't seem to get in, contact Eric Condic 248-370-2467 or condic@oakland.edu or Ask a Librarian for help.

How do I get a library card or Spirit/Grizzly ID card?
Ideally, you would stop by the Spirit card office when you are on campus and get an ID (Grizzly) card made and then bring that card to the circulation desk. However, the Spirit Card Office is generally only open during business hours, M-F, posing a particular challenge to distance education students. Our circulation staff realizes this and will help you set up a library account over the phone. Call them at (248)370-4425 and tell them you are a distance education student who needs to activate your library account. There are several other Oakland University accounts you may also want to take the time to activate, like your OU webmail account, and your ILLiad interlibrary loan account, and these accounts can be activated online! See our Student Guide for OU Accounts for instructions on setting these up.

I'm trying to get an item sent to me and am being told I need to use my OUCA email account. I don't have one (or don't remember it). What do I do?
See our page on Oakland University Computer Accounts.