The library's oldest special interest collection deals with contemporary art from 1945 onwards. This topic had already been one of the library's core themes of collection within the library landscape during the GDR. In 1993, the DFG started funding this special interest collection. Devoid of any temporal constraint, topics of photography, industrial design and commercial art are part of the collection. The collections are for example attached to the "Sondersammelgebiet Mittlere und Neuere Kunstgeschichte bis 1945 und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft" (special interest collection focusing on art history until 1945 and general science of art) of the Heidelberg University Library.