The Accession originally came with materials from the Library and Information Services Council Scotland (LISCS) and the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC). These materials were removed to become Acc.13657.

The earlier SLA minutes are in bound volumes with later years placed into folders, this order has been maintained by adding the materials from their original folders into manuscripts folders. The working group papers and reports have been arranged chronologically, but in instances where there is the same start date, the group with the shortest duration appears first. The original working group papers were in designated folders and this order has been maintained in their transfer to manuscript folders. The photographs were originally put into a single box, most often loose and without any identifying marks. Loose photographs have been gathered into manuscripts folders while those photographs which were originally in their protective packets have been placed directly into archive boxes to maintain their original order. The W.B. Paton archive has been added to the end of the SLA archive, along with the dissertations and theses held by the SLA.

A small number of papers held by the SLA but not part of their minutes, correspondence, committee papers, working group papers and reports, have been added to the SLA miscellaneous papers section at the end of the archive.