Over 3,000 printed pamphlets, leaflets and issues of periodicals, mostly published 1900-1970, plus a collection of microfiche and microfilm of other publications, produced by left-wing parties and organisations in the period 1961–88.

Thousands of pamphlets, booklets, leaflets, speeches, brochures and other material from political parties, trade unions, pressure groups and other bodies concerned with the Australian labour movement from the 1890s to 1960s.

Pamphlets, journals and other publications documenting many strands of American radicalism.

Pamphlets, newspapers, printed ephemera, transcripts from archives in Ireland and Australia, records of Irish organisations in Australia, and personal papers of Irish nationalists and Catholic clergy. Also about 1200 photographs of Australian places and people with an Irish connection.

1,300 pamphlets and tracts published in Britain between 1829 and 1882. They provide a valuable record of the issues that were discussed and debated in Britain in the middle decades of the 19th century.

About 15,000 books and pamphlets. The great strength of the collection is in Pacific voyages and early Australiana with many very rare items. Also manuscripts including papers of Joseph Banks, maps and pictures.

Around 186 Chinese newspapers and serials, mostly published from 1949 to 1984, plus a small number of government documents of the period 1969 to 1977, monographs, pamphlets, mimeographed works, and some works published during the Japanese occupation of China.

696 books and pamphlets relating to freshwater fishing mostly from Britain, as well as many from Australia, New Zealand and America.

About 3,000 books and pamphlets, mostly published in Britain, the majority on astronomy but also some works on geology, physics and chemistry, as well as a small group of Tanock's personal papers.

About 260 books and pamphlets on American history, as well as papers of the Woodriff family and Tilghman, including about 380 of Tilghman's photographs of the Northern Territory 1925–1927 and Queensland 1931–1933.

About 500 books, pamphlets, reports, leaflets, circulars, reprints and transcripts, mostly published 1920–1950, relating to communism, the labour movement and international politics. About half are Australian.

614 books and pamphlets, mostly published overseas in the period 1850–1950, including children’s books, novels, atlases, scripture readings, prayer books, hymn books, works on theology, school textbooks and some historical works.