The Special Collections and Archives of the Georgia State University Library collects and preserves unique and rare historical materials in selected subject areas. Most collection materials were created in the mid- to late-20th century and reflect some aspect of social change. The department promotes the use of these materials by the Georgia State University community, scholars and the public. Its goal is to advance scholarship and to further the educational, research, and service missions of the university.

In addition to its manuscript and oral history collections, portions of the materials housed in Special Collections and Archives have been scanned and can be found online in the Library's Digital Collections.

Research areas include:
 

Communications/Journalism

• WSB Radio Records - First radio station to broadcast in Atlanta (1922), Program logs document the types of shows they broadcast, Photographs (online) and publicity materials
• Great Speckled Bird - Atlanta's Undergound Newspaper from 1968-1975 is now digitized online in its entirety.

Civil Rights

• Stetson Kennedy Papers - Kennedy infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s and and fought white supremacy in the Jim Crow south.
• Integration at Georgia State University (part of the University Archives)

Labor

• National Domestic Workers Union records - recorded the efforts of Dorothy Bolden to organize domestic workers in the south
• Operation Dixie can be researched in the Stetson Kennedy Papers, the M. H. Ross Papers, and in the AFL-CIO Southern Region Collections
• The Atlanta Sanitation Workers Strikes in the records of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Local 1644

Music

• Wayne Daniel’s research files for “Pickin’ on Peachtree”
• Numerous early country music artists and events from Georgia (Skillet Lickers, Fiddlin’ John Carson, WSB Barn Dance, Old-Time Fiddler Conventions, etc.)
• Johnny Mercer papers (Georgia-native songwriter)
• Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Politics

• WSB Radio Records - Recordings of political speeches from the 1940s (Eugene Talmadge, E.D. Rivers, Helen Douglas Mankin, etc.)
• Georgia Government Documentation Project

Transportation/Aviation

• Eastern Airlines Collections (Southern Labor Archives)
• Georgia Government Documentation Project
• National Domestic Workers Union records - Dorothy Bolden was on the board for MARTA
• Amalgamated Transit Union, Division 732 collection (MARTA)

Urban Planning and Development

• Georgia Government Documentation Project
• University Archives

Women’s History

• Women's Collection