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The Corporation awards grants to nonprofit organizations and institutions for projects that are broadly educational in nature and that show promise of having national or international impact. Certain appropriations are made for activities, such as Corporation-led initiatives that are administered by the foundation's officers. The trustees set the overall policies of the foundation and have final authority to approve all grants above $50,000 recommended by the program staff. Grants of $25,000 or less, called discretionary grants, are made upon the approval of the president and are reported to the board; larger discretionary grants, those between $25,000 and $50,000, are also reviewed by a Corporation-wide group, which makes recommendations to the president. (from Program Guidelines 2003-2004 (http://www.carnegie.org/sub/program/areas.html))

Minutes, correspondence, annual reports, press releases, financial records, photographs, memorabilia, audiovisual, digital and printed materials document the philanthropic activities and administration of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The collection is actively growing, primarily through regular document transfers from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Andrew Carnegie's biographical information and personal philanthropic activity can be found in Series VII. In addition, his pre-1911 gifts, most notably his donations for libraries and church organs, can be found on microfilm (Series II), in the Home Trust Company Records (VI.A), and Financial Record Books (I.C.1). Grant files (Series III.A), which comprise the bulk of the collection) provide information on projects and institutions founded, endowed or supported by the Corporation. The Special Initiatives series (Series IV) contains the records of task forces, commissions and councils, formed by the Corporation mostly during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s to address specific issues. The Corporation's records include those of other Carnegie philanthropic organizations (Series VI), including the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Home Trust Company, both of which shared staff, officers, and office space with the Corporation for a period of time.

Library survey papers documenting Lyle's service on "visitation committees" of the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities. For each library evaluation or survey there are letters, committee documents, and related supporting materials supplied by the library under study. Southern academic libraries surveyed include the Universities of North and South Carolina, Rice University, and Washington and Lee University.

The correspondence and working papers of the "Survey of Resources of the Columbia University Libraries" (unpublished typescript), 1941. This guide to the Libraries' resources was prepared to supply data for Robert B. Downs' RESOURCES OF NEW YORK CITY LIBRARIES (Chicago, A.L.A., 1942). The resulting typescript is kept at the Reference desk in Butler Library.

This collection consists of the records of George Lowy as the first Director of the Herbert Lehman Library (at the time called the Chief of Social Sciences Division Library) at the School of International and Public Affairs (then the School of International Affairs (SIA)). The files contain administrative information about the library: acquisitions, annual reports, budgets, building matters, personnel, publications, security, etc.

The Card Catalog is a negative 16mm. motion picture film of the Dictionary Card Catalog of Columbia University Libraries ca. 1938-1948. The film was meant to be a record copy of the catalog to be uded for reproducing it if it were ever mutilated or destroyed. Unfortunately, the quality of the film is so poor that it is unusable for reproduction. The films have been retained as a sample of the mid-twentieth century holdings of a large American academic library.