The Special Collections Division was established in 1960 to preserve and make the Library's rare and valuable books, manuscripts, maps, and special subject collections available to researchers. However, its origins date to 1943 and 1945, when the private libraries of Judge Frederic William Howay and Dr. Robie Lewis Reid, respectively, were donated to the Library. These collections included thousands of books and other publications regarding the history of British Columbia and Canada and numerous maps, photographs, and manuscripts. They together surpassed the "Canadiana" holdings of almost every other Library in the country. Since 1960 the Division's holdings have grown to include graduate theses, university archives, cartographic and architectural materials, fine press books, and early children's books. The Division has been headed by Basil Stuart-Stubbs (1960-1964), Anne Yandle (1964-1991), Hans Burndorfer (1992-1996), Brenda Peterson (1996-2001), and Ralph Stanton (2001- ). In 1991 the name was changed to "Special Collections and University Archives Division" to reflect the increased operational and administrative importance of the University Archives within both the Division and the university.
The sous-fonds consists of records generated in the course of the Division's activities and include correspondence, reports, minutes, financial documents, and printed/published materials. They are arranged in the following series: Division and Library Records, U.B.C. Committees and Departments, External Correspondence, Special Collections Records (continuation of Division and Library Records), Correspondence - Incoming and Outgoing (continuation of External Correspondence), and Map Collections.
The early records in this sous-fonds complement and, to some extent, overlap those in the Basil Stuart-Stubbs series in the Librarian's Office sous-fonds, reflecting that Stuart-Stubbs was head of the Division immediately before he became University Librarian.

The sous-fonds consists of miscellaneous correspondence (1910-1951), documents/correspondence relating to a house in Florence (1920-1952), and poems (1928-1963).

Technical Services is the Library division responsible for cataloguing Library holdings and maintaining the computer hardware and software on which the Library’s catalogue exists.

Sous-fonds consists of correspondence, minutes, budgets, legal agreements and reports documenting the functions and activities of Technical Services and technical manuals documenting the Library’s catalogue systems, disaster plans, digitization plans, and strategic plans.

The sous-fonds consists of a manuscript, Tahiti: South Sea and Other Missionary Matters, 1788-1803, papers of T. Haweis transcribed and edited by Lionel Haweis (1942), a ministry certificate (1796) and other miscellaneous items.

The sous-fonds consists of miscellaneous correspondence.

The records in this sous-fonds reflect Verna Huffman Splane's work for the World Health Organization, the federal government, and as a faculty member at UBC and the University of Victoria. These records include government reports, meeting minutes, correspondence, articles, course outlines and notes. In addition, personal records reflect Verna's social life and interest in social welfare outside her career. These records include correspondence, curriculum vitae, photographs (print and digital), notes, articles and publications, meeting minutes and agenda, and certificates.

Sous-fonds consists of articles, addresses, lecture notes, correspondence, exams, conference programs, and publications pertaining to Sadler's professional life.

Sous-fonds consists of records documenting the planning and organization of the "Women and Sustainable Development: Canadian Perspectives" conference, including correspondence, reports, minutes, and published materials. It is arranged in two series: Conference Proposals and Miscellaneous Files.

The building of the Woodward Library was made possible by a gift from the P.A. Woodward Foundation. Opened in 1964, it served as the new home of the Biomedical Library, established in 1957 in the Faculty of Medicine's Wesbrook Building after operating as a reading room since 1950. The Woodward Library maintains specialized research materials for the Faculties of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the School of Nursing, and the various biological science programmes.
The sous-fonds primarily consists of records generated during the planning, construction, and initial operation of the Woodward Library and includes correspondence, reports, and architectural drawings. It also contains materials related to various committees and funds that the head librarian of Woodward Library chaired in the 1990s, including minutes, correspondence, financial documents, and memoranda.

With collections and services that reflect Aboriginal teaching, learning, and research approaches, the X̱wi7x̱wa Library is the centre of academic and community Indigenous scholarship. In the early 1970s, it began as the "Indian Education Resource Centre." In May 1993, the First Nations House of Learning Longhouse and Library facility opened with a $1 million donation from William and June Bellman. In 1995, Gene Joseph was appointed as the Library's first Head Librarian. The Library became a branch of the UBC Library in 2005.
The sous-fonds consists of records generated in the course of X̱wi7x̱wa Library activities and includes correspondences, reports, meetings' minutes and agenda, memos, budgets, applications, notes, class/course materials, conference materials, newsletters, journals, newspapers clippings, and photographs. It is divided into seven series – "Indian Education Resources Centre" (IERC), administration, programs and projects, committees, conferences, miscellaneous, and photographs.