Until the late 1990s, the University of Sunderland Library had not collected special collections, although there were some books in our collections which could be seen in that way. In 1998, we were given a collection of books which had been in the personal collection of John Ormerod Greenwood (b.1907, an actor, playwright and producer, as well as Quaker historian), along with several books relating to Quaker Studies donated from elsewhere. These were a key resource for our Quaker studies students.

The next collection we acquired, in 2000, was the Sidney Pollard Collection. This was used by our economic and social history researchers, and the monograph 'Sidney Pollard: a life in history' by David Renton was published in 2004 (Renton, D.  (2004) Sidney  Pollard: a life in history. London: Tauris Academic Studies. International Library of Twentieth Century History 2).

The need to preserve and provide access to the mining union archives in our region in the wake of the pit closures of the 1990s led us to giving a home to the NACODS (Durham) collection, but this also presented the challenge of how to provide appropriate conditions for the collection and facilities for research. Partnerships were formed with The National Union of Mineworkers (Durham) and The North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, and in 2007, a Heritage Lottery Fund award of £270,000 was granted to set up an archive centre at the University of Sunderland, holding records of all three partners. The main aim of NEEMARC (The North East England Mining Archive and Research Centre) is to preserve and catalogue primary archival material within the NEEMARC collections and to make the items accessible to a wide range of readers in one place. The funding provided a temperature and humidity-controlled archive strong room, a Reading Room, archive equipment, and an archivist for a year to set up the centre.

NEEMARC is open to all, and greatly benefited in the early days from volunteer input from ex-miners and others. Some of the union records give us information relating to particular miners, so they can be used for ancestry research, and they are also rich in data about health, wages and living and working conditions in the pits of the region. Records included in the archives can illuminate the stories of individual miners and families, and we were privileged to hear more from the people who came to use the archive. The records were able to live again through those who came to enquire and research.

In 2005, Kate Adie (journalist, broadcaster and writer) agreed to the University of Sunderland holding the records relating to her life as a trailblazing broadcast journalist reporting on stories both in the UK and from across the world, becoming the first female Chief News Correspondent at the BBC. Kate's collection has brought diversity and global news into the archive, and an Archives Revealed grant in 2023 has enabled us to employ a Project Archivist to catalogue Kate's (still expanding) collection, which will allow us to go on to forge links with new interest groups across the community, as well as support students and academic researchers. Once again, the records offer up stories of other people, places and lives and offer new relationships and research.

The Lord Puttnam collection arrived with us initially in 2016, and has also been added to over the years. It offers a window into the public life and work of a well-known and highly successful film producer, showing his contribution to public life and policy in education, the environment and the creative and communications industries. Lord Puttnam was also the first Chancellor of the University of Sunderland from 1997 until July 2007. His records contribute new narratives to Special Collections, reaching out into different worlds.

Our most recently acquired collection is the Hope Winch Collection. Hope Winch was an influential pharmacist and academic and was the first head of the pharmacy department at Sunderland Technical College (which later became the University of Sunderland), teaching here from 1921 until her untimely death in 1944. She was a pioneer in establishing a strong pharmacy programme in the North East of England and mentoring students throughout her career. Items and documents which belonged to Hope Winch, along with items and documents relating to the early years and development of the School of Pharmacy, have been donated by many ex-students. 

It is always a joy and privilege to welcome people from our own institution and beyond into the Reading Room, to find the stories and information they need and to listen to their own stories. Our collections all contribute their own facts and flavours to the story of Special Collections, University of Sunderland Library.