Glasgow University's Special Collections Department is one of the foremost resources in Scotland for academic research and teaching. Built up over a period of more than 500 years by purchase, gift and bequest, the collections now contain more than 200,000 manuscript items and around 200,000 printed works, including over 1,000 incunabula.

Major named collections of manuscript and printed material includes the Ashton Collection, Bannerman Papers, Bayer Collection, Beaconsfield Club Papers, Bissett collection, Blau Collection, Blake Prints, Bonar Collection, Bourgeois Collection, Broadsides, Broady Collection, Bruce Collection, Thomas Campbell Papers, Caricatures, Carmichael Collection, George Chalmers Papers, Thomas Chalmers Papers, Chapbooks, Civil and Canon Law Collection, College Press Publications, Cullen Papers, Dictionaries, Divinity Hall Library, Dougan Collection, Douglas Papers, Drysdale Collection, Dumbarton Presbytery Library, Eleonora Duse Collection, D S Robertson Manuscripts, Eadie Collection, Eaton Collection, Ephemera, Euing Collection, Farmer Collection, Ferguson Collection, Gautherin Collection, Gemmell Collection, Glasgow University Theses, John Walter Gregory Papers, Hamilton Collection, Henderson Manuscripts, James Findlay Hendry Papers, Hepburn Collection, Hill & Adamson Collection, Hislop, Welsh & Humphries, Hobsbaum Collection, Hunterian Collection, Hunterian Museum Records, Hyllested Collection, Jebb Collection, J S C Collection, Kelvin Collection, Jessie Marion King Papers, R D Laing Collection, Lamond Collection, Lanark Drafts & Papers, Laver Papers, C Hunter Lawson Papers, MacCallum Scott Papers, MacColl Papers, MacCunn Collection, McEwen Collection, McFarlane Papers, Alec Lawrence Macfie Papers, McLagan Manuscripts, McNicol Manuscripts, Mearns Collection, James Moffat Papers, Monro Collection, Moonie Collection, Morgan Papers, Morris Collection, Murray Collection, George Neilson Papers, Novel Collection, Ogilvie Collection, Old Library, Papyrus fragments, James Paterson Museum Archive, Printed Art Archive, Rare Books, Roberton Collection, Alexander Robertson Collection, James Robertson Collection, D S Robertson Manuscripts, Scarfe-La Trobe Collection, Schlesinger Papers, William Robert Scott Papers, Scottish Poetry Collection, Simson Collection, Smith Collection, Spencer Collection, Stillie Collection, John Stirling Letters, Stirling Maxwell Collection, Stone Library, Sutton Papers, Thirteen Club Papers, Allen Thomson Papers, Peter Donald Thomson Papers, Tischendorf Collection, Traquair Collection, Trinity College Library, Trotsky Collection, Veitch Collection, Waddell Collection, Walker-Arnott Collection, Whistler Archive, John White Papers, Whittaker Collection, Wright Papers, Wylie Collection, Zavertal Collection.