The papers of the distinguished public servant Lady Plowden (1910-2000) were generously gifted to Newcastle University Library in 2003 by the Plowden family.

Held in Special Collections, Lady Plowden's papers are an extensive and rich resource reflecting her many areas of concern. Lady Plowden held a number of high-profile public roles in the spheres of education reform and television broadcasting, most notably as Chairman of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England), 1963 – 1967, Vice-Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors, 1970 – 1975, and Chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), 1975 – 1980. A large and varied number of public roles followed, many of which retained this focus on primary and pre-school education reform as well as the promotion of high-quality television broadcasting. Lady Plowden's interests were wide however and these papers also reflect Lady Plowden's roles within organisations related to Romany and Traveller education and rights, adult education, the care and resettlement of offenders, the role of voluntary work, young adult unemployment and training, and women and employment.

Lady Plowden (nee Richmond) was a niece of Gertrude Bell and a cousin of the Trevelyans of Wallington. An additional deposit of material made by the Plowden family comprise of a number of family photograph albums and correspondence files relating to the Richmond, Bell and Trevelyan families.

The Pollard Collection was brought together by Mr Eric Pollard and was purchased from the family with support from the Friends of the University Library in 2011. It focuses on the author, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) being particularly rich in early editions of his works. The collection includes a series of short stories, published as 'The Railway Library', which made Kipling's name as a writer in India, England and America. There are also many of his classic novels and works of children's literature such as Puck of Pook's Hill. During the First World War, Kipling devoted his writing to the war effort and this is represented in the collection too. Besides printed books the Pollard Collection includes cuttings and ephemera relating to Kipling as well as 16 colour folio plates by the artists Maurice and Edward Detmold, produced to illustrate the 1908 Macmillan octavo edition of The Jungle Book.

The Post-incunabula collection does not strictly comply with the prescribed date range which often defines 'post-incunabula' but does contain English and foreign books printed 1501-1640. It includes works by John Stow, John Speed, Torquato Tasso and William Tynedale, as well as Robert Burton's The anatomy of melancholy, 4th ed. (1632), Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), Reginald Scot's The discouerie of witchcraft (1584), Palladio's architectural work I qvattro libri dell'architettvra (1581), Edmund Spenser's The faerie queene (1590-96) and Thomas Heywood's The hierarchie of the blessed angells (1635).

Consists of papers relating to Professor Randell's professional and academic associations throughout his career.

Consists of the professional and personal papers of Professor Frederick Charles Pybus. This also includes papers regarding his rare books and manuscripts collection.

The Pybus Collection, originally brought together by the esteemed local medic and surgeon Professor Frederick Charles Pybus (1883-1975), is rich in material relating to the history of medicine. The collection consists chiefly of some 2000 volumes which are mostly classics of the history of medicine, with particular reference to anatomy, surgery and medical illustration.

Highlights are Gilles de Corbeil's De Pulsibus (1494), the first printed book on the pulse, as well as a 1648 edition of William Harvey's celebrated work Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in which he published his discoveries about the motion of the heart and blood. There is also a 1555 edition of one of the most important and influential books in the history of medicine, De Humani Corporis Fabrica by Andreas Versalius. Most of the other celebrated anatomists are represented here too, as well as later pioneers and experts.

The Pybus collection also includes engravings, portraits, busts, holographic letters and a set of bleeding bowls (currently housed at the Walton Library).

The Rare Books collection is miscellaneous but literature and local history are two of the collections strengths. Items date from the mid-Sixteenth Century to the present day (facsimile of The Arundel Choirbook, 2003). Particularly notable items include a German propaganda sheet which was dropped on England in 1940: Adolf Hitler, A last appeal to reason; Edward Jenner's Inquiry into the causes and effects of the variolæ vaccinæ (1798); various works by Charles Dickens which remain in their original serialised parts, complete with paper wrappers; herbals by Elizabeth Blackwell (1739) and Nicholas Culpepper (1802); a volume of printed ephemera, broadsides, posters and cartoons referring to elections in Northumberland, Newcastle and Tyneside divisions, including cartoons of Joseph Cowen (1826-1931) as well as some English Revolution (or Civil War) tracts and the manuscript Design no. 11 - Plans, specifications and estimates for building a chapel in the township of St. John, Newcastle upon Tyne by John Dobson (1840).

The Ritchie Collection comprises books, pamphlets, atlases and charts relating to the history of Hydrography, the branch of marine science concerned with studying, surveying and mapping the earth's seas and waters. The collection represents the personal library of the former Hydrographer to the Royal Navy, Rear Admiral George Stephen Ritchie (b. 1914). Its contents reflect Rear Admiral Ritchie's professional achievements, as well as his personal interest in the history of Hydrography and surveying. Technical and cartographic material sits alongside numerous primary and secondary texts on the history of Hydrography, as well as publications on the broader themes of seafaring and exploration.

There are contemporary accounts, including The Surveying Voyage of HMS Flag by Captain R. N. Blackwood (1848) and An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands by William Mariner (1817), as well as more recent histories such as Vice Admiral Sir Archibald Day's The Admiralty Hydrographic Service 1795-1919 (1967). The great pioneers in the field, including James Cook and William Fitzwilliam Owen, are also represented. Many of the secondary texts in the collection are authors' signed copies and Rear Admiral Ritchie's own works are present, too, including Challenger: the Life of a Survey Ship (1957), a biography of the ship commanded by him on a celebrated voyage of 1951-1952.

The Robinson Collection comprises incunabula, medieval manuscripts and books so the material ranges from a fourteenth-century gradual to items published in the Nineteenth Century. The collection was bequeathed by Marjorie Robinson (d. 1998), widow of antiquarian bookseller, Philip Robinson. It includes early editions of works by Dante, Boccaccio and Tasso; rare pamphlets by Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift; and is a good resource for travel literature.

Highlights include an original Gutenberg Bible leaf [1400]; a book of hours which is printed on vellum, in a brown cloth binding with blue velvet spine and metal centerpiece, corner-pieces and ornamental clasp; presentation copies of Alexander Pope's works as well as books which he formerly owned and A letter from South Carolina, 2nd ed. (1718) which provides first-hand information on the pioneer settlement of that state.

The papers of Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford (1870-1949), relate chiefly to his political career, but also include material concerning his personal and professional life. They cover his election campaigns and his political career, during the years 1894-1938, and in particular they cover the different political offices he held, as a Liberal M.P. and Cabinet Minister, and as a member of the Board of Education, 1908-11, and the Board of Trade, 1914-16 and 1931-37. There is also material relating to Runciman's attempt to solve the 1938 Sudeten crisis through his mission to Czechoslovakia.The collection also includes the diaries and some correspondence of Walter's wife, Hilda Runciman, herself briefly an M.P. Hilda's diaries have been found to be of particular value to researchers, providing as they do an insight into the world and circles in which she and her husband moved, sometimes revealing insider knowledge about the current talk in London Society, a classic example being Hilda's remarks in her 1936 diary about the abdication crisis and the King's intentions. In addition, there are 114 volumes of press cuttings, plus material relating to Walter Runciman's father, the 1st Baron Runciman, as well as documents relating to Sir Walter Leslie Runciman (1900-1989).