This special collection is defined linguisticly by language groups. After WW II it was collected in Goettingen as a part of the larger field of ural-altaic languages, literatures and cultures. Since 1970 it has been a special collection in its own right. Altaic languages are all Turkic, Mongolian, Tungusic and Korean languages. These languages are spoken within a broad belt stretching from the Bosporus to the Bering Strait, mostly north of the agricultural belt. The palaeoasiatic or palaeosiberian languages are linguisticly not interrelated and are spoken in East-Siberia and Japan (Ainu) and include the Eskimo of Siberia.

Korea occupies a special position within this collection, since Korea has her own old culture and rich literature going back over a thousand years. Goettingen offers with well over a 100.000 volumes one of the best collections of Korean literature in Germany.

It likewise posesses a good collection of Mongolian books. Recently the complete Manchurian language Kanjur or Tripitaka as a reprint from the original 18th century wooden blocks was added to the collection.

Likewise the literature from Sinkiang in Western China has been bought in great numbers in recent years. This includes the Sibo literature from the Ili valley. The Sibo speak a manchurian dialect. But whereas the language of the Manchu, who ruled over China from 1644 to 1912, is nearly extinct in Manchuria now, the Sibo in Sinkiang kept their language alive.

Nevertheless, the bulk of the altaic languages is spoken by small nations and tribes in Siberia, many of them without a culture of written language and at the edge of extinction. The task in this area is to collect any language document, often oral literature or primary school books, for many languages the only literature at all.

The literature of Turkey and the western Turkic speaking islamic nations, like the new independent states of the old Soviet Union, is mainly collected by the University Library at Halle, though Goettingen also offers a basic collection in this field.