The GRPL Ephemera collection was first given life in 1998, during the process of organizing the collections for the moves to the temporary and new buildings, during the library renovation period. A large cache of unprocessed miscellaneous items formed the core and other like items were shifted to the collection from the materials found during the move clean up or from the small unprocessed accessions in the processing backlog.

A liberal definition of ephemera is used in determining items for this collection. Items defined in the ephemera literature as minor publications, as well as truly ephemeral materials, are included.

There are several informational or pictorial publications in the “Guides” section, which are ephemera in the sense that they are expected to become dated over time, but also often take on the form of a book/booklet. There is also a healthy growth series for cookbooks. But, as ephemera, they too often are undated, and often represent a form of PR (or fund-raising) for a church or organization, as many of the items associated with ephemera do, rather than well conceived publications. These cookbooks within a Local History collection are valued more for the brief information about the organization than the recipes themselves, which do not particularly represent local or regional foods.

Broad subject areas were also defined. But, the shape of the collection has changed over the years, as new collections were defined to cover areas such as Music, or Art or Churches, and whole sections were then moved out of the Ephemera Collection, to become part of new or other collections.