Begun in 1963, with the intention of preserving the ephemeral productions of the local antiestablishment poets, this has solidified into the collection of a particular set of movements in contemporary American poetry. Often taking a fugitive and fragile form but sometimes coming out as fashionable limited editions, the publications stem mainly from four schools: the Black Mountain College group, the poets of the San Francisco Renaissance, the New York "Beats," and the Kansas Connection. The several thousand items of the collection include issues of over 500 separate little magazines and the productions of many small presses. While attempting to provide as broad and representative a selection as possible, we place special emphasis on poets who have had some connection with the local scene—Kansas poets such as Michael McClure, Charles Plymell, Ken Irby, William Stafford, Ronald Johnson, and the adopted Kansan, William Burroughs, and frequent visitors such as Allen Ginsberg (and others of his circle) and Jonathan Williams, The Jargon Society publisher.

The most recent addition of a Kansas poet to the collections is the library of Max Douglas, a promising young KU poet who died in 1970 at the age of 21. The Douglas Collection, presented to the Library by the poet's father in 1982, is strong in the Black Mountain and San Francisco poets, and includes Douglas' own posthumously published poems.