The Åbo Akademi University library has over the years been the recipient of a significant number of culturally important book and archival collections, which it is now preserving for future generations.
The collections are an important part of the cultural heritage of the Swedish-speaking Finns, but some of the have a larger national or international significance. Unesco has noted the collections and selected six of them for the national Memory of the World Register. One of these, the Gadolin library, is a book collection, while two, the Finnish Economic Society, the Gunnar Björling collection, the Hagar Olsson collection and Edvard Westermarck collections, are archival collections. The last, the Vasa svenska lyceum library, including the Oskar Rancken collection, is a mixed book and archival collection.