Collecting Areas

CRL Collection Policies

CRL collects materials directly through purchase, exchange, deposit, and born-digital ingest based on established policies and guidelines authorized by CRL’s Board of Directors with the advice and recommendations of the Collections and Services Policy Committee (CSPC).

The CRL's collection policy is currently being revised. The new policy will be published in 2025. 

Collection Highlights

Law and government information

CRL collects broadly in primary legal and government resources, with an emphasis on serial publications from central governments including legislative, administrative, financial, and statistical reports.

CRL purchases government archives and records through CRL's cooperative collection building programs.  

The Foreign Government Documents Collection includes:

  • Several hundred thousand volumes from government agencies in over 100 countries.

  • More than 1,750 official gazettes.

  • Historical collections with original format government documents and microform collections (purchased or acquired via cooperative programs).

The U.S. State Government Documents Collection includes:

  • Over half a million volumes from state government agencies and legislatures (up to 1950).

  • Financial reports and research studies.

  • This collection excludes: Internal agency newsletters, agricultural station publications, maps, state court reports.

Most of the collection is not cataloged; to identify resources, consult state publications checklists or contact CRL’s Access Services. 

Science, technology, and engineering

CRL houses a vast collection of foreign-language science and technology periodicals, including rare titles not commonly found in North American research libraries. It also offers extensive historical holdings of U.S. and international scientific and technical publications.

You can access this collection through our catalog.

History and economics of agriculture

CRL specializes in historical and economic agriculture resources, with extensive collections of journals, census data, and rare historical monographs.

You can access this collection through our catalog.

Collections by Formats

Materials supporting research and teaching in the four major domains described above, as well as in a variety of other subjects, include:

Archives

Millions of pages of documents, including:

  • Major sets from the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), The National Archives of the UK, and other national and intergovernmental bodies. 

  • Extensive archival sets from federal and state agencies and commissions; nongovernmental organizations; and scholarly and missionary societies.

  • Many special collections of archival and primary source material from various world regions (such as the 100,000-plus-page archive of Cambodia's notorious Khmer Rouge regime). 

Newspapers

CRL holds more than 16,000 newspaper titles from countries in all world regions, and from every US state, including more than 1,800 U.S. ethnic titles and some of the earliest African American papers. CRL currently subscribes to dozens of international newspapers and to many US ethnic press papers.

CRL microfilms current issues of selected international newspapers on an ongoing basis, in addition to the back files of important newspapers identified through collaborative programs.  

Serials

Rich historical collections, as well as current subscriptions to more than 7,000 titles rarely held in North American libraries, including the following categories:

Monographs

CRL holds more than 500,000 monographs in all formats. Ongoing acquisitions include:

  • Major microform sets in literature, art, theater, music, science, and other fields.

  • Unique publications from South and Southeast Asia produced by governmental and nongovernmental organizations in those regions. 

International doctoral dissertations

CRL acquires hundreds of non-US, non-Canadian doctoral dissertations a year to add to its 800,000+ collection of dissertations. Acquisitions are primarily through the demand purchase program. 

Collaborative Collections

We owe deep gratitude to our members, whose dedication has been instrumental in making this work possible. The collection of these materials required significant supplementary efforts over an extended period of time

College and University Catalogs 

  • Materials date from 1820 to 1974

  • Includes U.S. college catalogs in their original format.

  • Institutions represented include colleges, universities, junior colleges, professional schools, and preparatory schools (19th century inclusive, 20th century selective) including undergraduate, graduate, and professional divisions.

  • Additional documents include charters, by-laws, and reports from presidents, chancellors, treasurers, and comptrollers.

  • The collection is highly comprehensive, including institutions no longer in existence.

Primary and Secondary Textbooks

  • Publication dates range from the 18th to 20th century (mostly 20th century)

  • Includes U.S. primary and secondary schoolbooks and textbooks for non-degree schools.

  • Represents all common U.S. primary and secondary school subjects with the strongest holdings in English studies and mathematics with substantial holdings in social sciences, health, science, and foreign languages.

  • Covers foreign language grammar and readers up to the college level.

Curriculum Guides

  • Publications mostly from the 20th century, with some 19th-century materials.

  • K-12 curriculum guides from U.S. state, county, municipal, or district agencies for all subjects.

  • Not cataloged.

International Central Bank Publications

  • Foreign Bank Publications include serials from banks outside the U.S.

  • Covers both public and private banks, organized by country.

  • Collection maintained through direct subscriptions since 1956.

Reference Books Archive

  • Mainly used for special research projects.

  • CRL manages the Reference Books Archive Project for preserving physical materials.

  • Older reference books contain information not available in electronic sources.

Railroad Collection

  • contains hard copy annual reports, timetables, tariffs, and promotional materials of U.S. and foreign railroads.

  • bulk of the collection from the post-Civil War period through the 1930s.

  • earliest dates of these publications are the 1840s.