The collection provides a complete administrative history of the Philadelphia chapter of the Special Libraries Association from its founding in 1919 through the time it was donated to the Drexel University Archives in 2005. Records include chapter bylaws and procedural manuals; executive board meeting minutes; financial records; membership rosters; planning documents; and annual reports from various officers, committees, special interest groups. A large portion of the collection consists of the chapter’s publications, including the Bulletin, a chapter newsletter published four to six times a year beginning in 1933; a membership directory, issued sporadically since 1920; and a directory of libraries and information sources in Philadelphia and the surrounding region, published beginning in 1920 and updated every one to ten years.

The records indicate that the chapter conscientiously documented its history from its beginning. The collection was weeded in the 1940s, and again in the 1980s and 1990s, more extensively and in accordance with a records retention policy developed by the Special Libraries Association for its chapters. The collection was stored at the Free Library of Philadelphia from the chapter’s founding through the 1980s. In 1984, it was moved to Friends Hospital, where it stayed until 1994, when it was transferred to the library at QVC, Inc (librarians who worked for these organizations were officers of the Philadelphia Chapter of SLA at the time the records were moved there). The collection was transferred to the Drexel University Archives in 2005.

Original order in the collection has been preserved in the arrangement of series. The first series consists of general materials relating to the history and governance of the chapter and other miscellaneous records relevant to the chapter as a whole, some of which were added to this series by the archivist. The next three series consist of records created by individual chapter governing bodies and officers (executive board, president, secretary, and treasurer), committees, and special interest groups.