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The Chinese Diary Collection contains 850 volumes of hardbound and softbound diaries, dating from 1930s to 1980s. Some volumes are filled with writing from cover to cover; some, partially filled; and some, with brief inscriptions. It includes 81 volumes by different individuals of Republican Period (1912-1949) and 95 small volumes penned by an engineer, with scientific data and personal contents. The contents recorded in the dairies are significant, for instance, a set of 20 work diaries by a mid-rank public security cadre member during and after the Cultural Revolution offers detailed history of public security operations for two decades. A set of 10 work diaries by an officer working in a ministry of the State Council in the 1980s documented the political and daily lives before and after the Tiananmen Massacre in association with the students' pro-democracy movement.

The Ephemera collection on Chinese science, technology, law, and society (中国科技法律社会汇集) contains over 800 items published in China, dating from circa 1906 to 2010, with its bulk dating from 1931 to 1981. Materials include pamphlets, handbooks, picture books, posters, lantern slides, literacy flash cards, etc. The subject areas of the materials include science, technology, agriculture, personal hygiene, economy, culture, law, society, and politics, etc. The collection also includes works that reflected social, political, industrial transformation in China.