Collection consists of ephemeral materials created and accumulated by various private presses including Dolmen Press, Rampant Lions Press, Poetry Bookshop, Press Porcepic, Soft Press, Stanbrook Abbey Press.

The Private Press book collection includes items from more than 1,000 presses in Canada, Great Britain, and the United States. This collection has been developed as a representative collection, with intensive coverage of selected presses, such as Hague & Gill, St. Dominic's Press, Nonesuch Press, and Golden Cockerel Press, to provide scope for in-depth study of the history and development of these particular presses. A sample selection from a wide range of other private presses gives an overview of the private press movement in the twentieth century.