The Foley Center Library at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, opened in 1992 and was named for alumnus , a Superior Court judge for 34 years, and his wife, Helen Higgins Foley They were the parents of Tom Foley who represented the state's fifth district in Congress for thirty years the last six as Speaker of the House. The building is and is made of 315,000 bricks. It contains a comprehensive collection of literary volumes and many online databases that support student research. Students check out books using their GU identification cards and have wirelessinternet access. ‘ILLiad’ is the name of Foley Center Library's Interlibrary Loan program. Students can access the system in order to retrieve articles and books that are unavailable at Gonzaga. To promote a student friendly study environment, Foley Center Library has different Zones where students can work. Patrons are presented with three distinct signs that signify the different types of study zones within the library. A red octagon represents quiet zones which mean silence, yellow triangles for whispering and green circles signaling talking zones. It succeeded the nearby Crosby library, which opened 35 years earlier Both were constructed on the site of Gonzaga Stadium the Foley Lawn is the northern portion of the stadium's football field.
The Special Collections Department works to preserve the heritage of Gonzaga University, the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus and the surrounding region, and to make its historical resources readily available for inspection, evaluation, and research. The Department supports the mission and goals of Gonzaga University, in particular by promoting students' use and appreciation of rare books and primary sources like historical photographs and manuscripts collections. Two exhibits of interest were shown in 2010, Hoop it Up: Gonzaga's Basketball Heritage in the spring of 2010 highlighting the history of Basketball at Gonzaga and Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Life Recollected, focusing on the work of Jesuit priest and Victorian poet Hopkins. The later display was created in conjunction with an international conference on Hopkins writings hosted July 8–11, 2010.
