Digital Collections

Digital Collections at CRL

At CRL, our digital collections grow from a digitization program guided by three complementary pillars: access, preservation, and collection building.

Access. Responding to member requests, whenever copyright allows, CRL digitizes print and microform materials from its collections and provides access to digital copies within ten business days. This rapid-response service ensures that researchers can quickly consult rare or unique materials, regardless of their location. To learn more about digital delivery services.

Preservation. Recognizing the fragility of many print and microform items, CRL proactively digitizes materials at risk of deterioration. The original items are stabilized and stored in acid-free enclosures to extend their physical life, while the digital surrogates ensure continued access without further wear on the originals. To learn more about CRL preservation initiatives.

Collection Building. Collaborating with member libraries, CRL builds enduring digital collections that serve the evolving needs of scholars and researchers. These efforts are guided by strategic partnerships and the collective expertise of advisory committees, ensuring that digitization supports research priorities across disciplines and institutions. To learn more about CRL advisory committees.


Our digital collections include documents, newspapers, books, and journals scanned in response to scholars’ requests or selected proactively to support emerging areas of research. CRL also curates thematic groups of rare and distinctive materials for digitization, anticipating the needs of future scholarship.

Digitized titles are accessible through the CRL Digital Collections, providing researchers with open and reliable access to primary source materials that inform global inquiry.

Hunter Collection

The Hunter Collection consists of mass education material, directories and guidebooks published in Hong Kong and in Mainland China, particularly Shanghai, in the years 1947-1954 and collected by Edward Hunter. 

Sajjad Zaheer and Razia Sajjad Zaheer archives.

Collection of material by and about Sajjad Zahir and Raziyyah Sajjad Zahir, including correspondence, newspaper articles, notes, manuscripts, books, photographs, and miscellaneous materials.

The Mexican Intelligence Digital Archives (MIDAS)

MIDAS, the Mexican Intelligence Digital Archives (los Archivos del Autoritarismo Mexicano), is a crowd-sourced, public access digital archive of historical documents from Mexican intelligence agencies.

Civilian Conservation Corps

The Civilian Conservation Corps camp papers: a guide. D-18363 This is an extensive collection of newspapers written and issued at the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps. At its peak in 1935, the CCC had 2,600 companies.

Brazilian Government Documents

Executive branch serial documents issued by Brazil’s national government between 1821 and 1993, and by its provincial governments from the earliest available to the end of the first Republic in 1930.