The fonds contains correspondence, notebooks, and other literary manuscripts of many of the authors represented in the Colbeck Book Collection. The fonds also contains records generated by Colbeck, through his activities as a book dealer and collector, and in the process of cataloguing his collection for UBC. Finally, the fonds contains records created by the Librarian in charge of the Colbeck collection, generated in the process of cataloguing and maintaining that collection. The fonds is arranged in three series based on units that have been amalgamated into the current collection: Manuscript collection ([18--]-1914); Book and manuscript collecting records ([19--]-1988); and Colbeck Book Collection and Colbeck Librarian records (1968-1988).