Ideally, items in the heritage collections should survive forever. To ensure this, some limitations are placed on their use.

The Dunedin Public Libraries has two specialist Heritage Collections. Both are located on the third floor of the City Library.

The McNab New Zealand Collection contains around 83,000 items relating to the history of the New Zealand and Pacific regions.

The Alfred and Isabel Reed Collection contains around 10,000 items dating from the tenth century to the present day relating to literature, religion, and the history of the book.

Everyone is very welcome to use the heritage collections, but items can only be used within the third floor of the City Library and they are not available for borrowing to take home.

There is a collection of art works used to beautify spaces within the libraries.