The University of Tulsa's McFarlin Library currently houses more than 140,000 rare books and over 9,000 linear feet of literary and historical manuscripts, photographic collections, artwork, and artifacts.
Most of the collections are literary and historical in nature, with special emphasis on English Modernist authors and the history of the American West. One of the most notable areas of collecting is in twentieth-century British, Irish, and American literature, which includes an extensive array of materials by and about James Joyce and the papers of Nobel Prize winner V.S. Naipaul. The department also houses a broad selection of materials relating to Native American history, law, languages and art; wars and conflicts, with emphasis on especially World War I and the Vietnam Conflict; women authors; popular culture; and the history of Oklahoma and the Tulsa region.