Retrospective conversion of monographs has begun on a limited scale, with planning for a broader effort in the future. The emphasis of the collection is in the social sciences, education, public and environmental science, business and economics. English is the primary language collected, but other Western languages are also collected. Non- official publications that describe the agencies or provide access to their documents are acquired by the Department as reference materials. The foreign collection contains documents published by national governments of most countries of the world.
Most attention is focused on the executive and legislative branches of the governments.
The collection provides support for teaching and research at Indiana University, and also is the premiere collection of foreign documents within the state. Of note is the Africana collection, publications on current topics, and important retrospective materials for Western European countries, including runs of parliamentary debates and working papers for Great Britain and France, as well as German debates from 1867 to the present. The primary emphasis of the state collection is on Indiana documents and those documents which have significance in relation to Indiana, either in scope or subject matter. Indiana documents are collected comprehensively, while other documents are selectively acquired, based on user demand. Many state documents are made available through the Statistical Reference Index microfiche.