The Gifts and Exchanges Division was established in 1965 to take the responsibility from Acquisitions for accepting gifts from individuals and organizations and arranging exchanges of books and periodicals with other libraries. Walter Harrington was the first Division Head and was succeeded in turn by Linda Joe (Kwong) (1968-1971), Joan Selby (1971-1973), and Graham Elliston (1973-1994). After Elliston's retirement, and as part of an overall reorganization of the Library, the Division was abolished, and its functions were distributed among the other branches and service divisions.
The Acquisitions Division maintained records on gifts and exchanges until 1965. The older records were then maintained in their original order, while records created by the new Gifts and Exchanges Division were placed in a new filing system. This process was repeated when Graham Elliston became Division Head. Records dating from before 1973 were transferred to the University Archives in 1979, and the rest of the sous-fonds was acquired through the Librarian's Office in 1994.
The sous-fonds consists of records generated in the course of arranging donations to the Library, exchanges of materials with other institutions, and monetary appraisals of these materials. It includes correspondence, reports, lists of publications, financial records, and printed materials. The records are arranged in the following series: Exchanges and Serials, Gifts Received, Gift Correspondence, Corporate Gifts, and Personal Gifts.