This is a devised collection that contains primarily copies of publications issued by an office of Kent County government. It is not an official archive of Kent County records. Documents of Kent County organizations that work directly with government resources, such as social service agencies or historical preservation, may also be included here.

It should be noted that there is no publicly accessible Archives for Kent County as there is for the City, in the City Archives, or non-official Grand Rapids historical publications, as there is in the local history collections at the Grand Rapids Public Library. While the County maintains the vital records as required by law, many other documents are discarded. Some of those have been added to the City Archives or the Grand Rapids Public Library, or other Archives in the Greater Grand Rapids area, or Michigan, in order to continue to provide this historical information for future use. One such collection of materials in the GRPL Archives is Coll. 034, the Kent County Health Department Records. Coll. 309 contains those County documents which don't fit into the various other county holdings elsewhere in the GRPL Archives. It is an open collection, which will grow slowly, as new materials become available. Materials are not sought systematically, and the collection will be shaped by the actual materials which are passed on for the collection.