Private collections are often full of appeals that are different from those held by university libraries. The Gunma University libraries offer such collections that have been generously donated by their original owners. Many of these items are now out of print.
Incunabula printed in Venice on 1491. Incunabula is a book printed before 1501 in Europe after the birth of letterpress invented by Gutenberg. About 30,000 incunabulas are remained in the present world.
About 6,000 books and journals mainly on philosophy, literature, natural science and art as well as original manuscripts and notebooks of the late Tanabe Hajime, former honorary professor from Kyoto University. Many of the works have notes written by the professor himself. He remarked that the holdings of a university library should be for ordinary students to use, and items should not be owned privately but be readily available to those who are willing to learn. He obtained most of his research items at his own expense. The greater part of his collection was donated to the University, and a part to the Kyoto University.
236 books by and on the 17th century Dutch philosopher Spinoza, a part of the 8,000-book collection treasured and donated by the late Takahashi Sei-hichi, the second president of the Kanko-do book store in Maebashi to the university. This is a rare Spinoza collection that includes the first edition of Tractatus Theologico-Politicus and other valuable books in English, German, French, Latin and Hebrew.
This is a collection of approximately 9,000 handwritten copies of old Japanese and Chinese books, woodblock-printed books and other ancient books that were owned by the family of the former Baron Nitta. The late Nitta Yoshitomi donated them to the University. The handwritten copies and printed books are cataloged in Kotenseki Sogo Mokuroku (Comprehensive Catalog of Classic Books) published by Iwanami Shoten.
=> Electronic items
Yamaguchi Yukio and part-time teacher Haraguchi Mikiko (both from the Department of Education) donated a rare collection of about 120 different local karuta from all over the nation.