Early in Columbia history, the Montgomery Library of Accountancy maintained the financial collection containing approximately 25,000 volumes. Many of these volumes are rare items, including the earliest printed work that dates to 1494. The Montgomery Library also contained 15,000 business manuscripts and account books dating from the years 1332 to 1900. The reference collection was important as well as the American and foreign periodicals, business services, government releases, directories, and statistical sources. The Reserved Book Rooms contained some 8,000 volumes on reserve for approximately 300 courses in business and economics. 

A second home of the Business Library was formerly the main floor of Butler Library, located in the front wing of the building. It contained an actively-used collection of some 87,000 volumes, rich in business and economic materials, for use in research projects and course reading. 

In April 1962, President Grayson Kirk announced the establishment of the Thomas J. Watson Library of Business & Economics in a new building, Uris Hall. According to the president, “The unique feature of the library is the support of and identification with individual library collections by corporations in fields of their major interest.” 

The library has a basic collection of over 330,000 volumes and 296,000 microforms on business and economics, over 3,000 American and foreign periodicals, trade and association journals, and extensive files of current government releases, labor union periodicals, and pamphlets. In addition, the Marvyn Scudder Financial Collection, a large special collection of research materials, contains documentary material pertaining to the financial histories of thousands of corporations from 1821 to date. This remarkable research collection is one of the largest of its kind and affords an excellent opportunity for the study of business history, investments, security markets, industry analyses, and corporate finance. 

The library collection increased heavily in print format until computer technology took over. Starting in 1992, the library has been adding more materials in electronic format. To facilitate and increase seating capacity, the library removed 29,000 volumes from on site to the Libraries’ shared off-site storage facility (ReCAP), namely publications from 1984 and earlier. Over the years, various architectural modifications have resulted in an increased number of items being moved to ReCAP. The library now sends about 5,000 volumes per year to ReCAP and purchases fewer print volumes and more electronic books and journals.  

Currently, the library has 23,500 books and monographs, published from 2013 to the present, a limited reference collection, and approximately thirty current periodical titles in Watson Library. The microfilm collection has been moved to ReCAP. 

The library collection focuses on the topics of: accounting, decision and risk analysis, corporate and international finance, management, marketing, security analysis, media, entertainment, and communications, and social enterprise. The library's collection reflects the Columbia Business School curriculum emphasis on teaching and research needs. A curriculum review resulting in greater emphasis on teaching international business led the library to add more resources on international business, companies, and industries.