Our guiding principles are:
- To collect publications or archival items we define as ‘Scottish’, whether published in Scotland or elsewhere
- To collect non-Scottish publications from adjacent regions and general reference material on ornithology worldwide
- To collect and preserve materials relating to Scottish ornithology that might otherwise be lost
- To actively collect Scottish material that is rare or not available elsewhere i.e. those items that are considered unique and distinctive and that help to differentiate our holdings
- To consider the long-term impact of acquiring various formats
