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 for 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 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.