The program of cooperative collection development is instrumental in meeting the needs of thousands of scholars. CRL's collections are designed to supplement, not duplicate, member libraries' collections by approximately five million volumes. CRL bibliographic records are being added to the OhioLINK central catalog.
Collections are available for extended loan to member libraries through interlibrary loan.
CRL actively collects serials that are from Southeast Asia or are foreign language science and technology publications. Current subscriptions include 14,000 titles that are rarely held in North American libraries. CRL maintains a collection of over 330,000 monographs, specializing in the history of science, medicine, and technology. These are research collections primarily acquired through deposit by members. Preservation programs are aimed at research materials from Africa, Latin America, Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.