Columbia University Libraries’ holdings contain some of the world’s most remarkable and prominent collections of recorded knowledge. These Distinctive Collections encompass but extend far beyond traditional special collections to include resources in all formats, from objects that preserve some of the earliest forms of writing to modern archives and, increasingly, non-print formats such as film, audio, and born-digital resources. While the majority of this policy is intended to guide the acquisition and management of general collections, the values and principles represented apply equally to building and evolving our Distinctive Collections. 

Columbia’s Distinctive Collections have been built over many decades; the commitment to them is enduring and marked by sustained resource investment (inclusive of investments in staff expertise, collection acquisition, processing, storage, and long-term stewardship). Primarily concentrated in Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Global Studies Division, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and C.V. Starr East Asian Library, the Libraries’ Distinctive Collections acquire, preserve, and provide access to collections that significantly distinguish Columbia University from peer institutions. While critically and strategically important to Columbia’s teaching and research strengths, the constituency for Distinctive Collections extends beyond campus to a global community of scholars.

In the context of Columbia University Libraries, the term “distinctive” is defined several ways:

• individual items in all formats (e.g. rare books, cuneiform tablets) that are rare, unique, and may carry significant artifactual and/or financial value or are so fragile as to require special care and handling;

• archives where the integrity of a collection, and Columbia’s stewardship of it, serves to authenticate the contents as primary sources¹;

• collections that are so comprehensive in scope as to constitute a collective resource that is not duplicated elsewhere.

¹ A fundamental principle of archival management is the concept of respect des fonds: the original intellectual order of archival records that was imposed by its creator should be preserved because those records are the product of human activity, decisions, power structures, etc. and, as a result, the parts of an archive (e.g., individual files) are authenticated by their relationships to the larger archive. The implication is that archives are more than random assemblages of discrete items, but rather interrelated pieces of an intellectual whole.