Immediately after the Second World War, the number of books in the library reached one million, but only 120,000 were shipped to Taiwan in 1949.
中央圖書館收藏的善本書，大部分是抗戰時期從民間藏書家收購來的，少部分是遷到台灣以後，代管前東北大學和國立北平圖書館甲庫的古籍，善本的收藏極為豐富。