On April 24, 2015 Harvard hosted a very interesting conference titled "University as Collector" at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (which, sadly, I was unable to attend personally). Video recordings for all of the sessions at this meeting are now available at:

University As Collector | Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University

Universities gather knowledge and specialists, as well as historical artifacts. Using Harvard University’s extensive collections as a starting point, this conference will assemble its own group of specialists to explore the history and mission of universities through “university objects.” Each presenter will examine one exemplary holding at Harvard to consider the insights its presence offers into the world of knowledge. Speakers from a variety of Harvard communities will also add...

There are some fascinating materials here about ways in which various "collections" (in the broadest sense, certainly including but going beyond library or museum materials) amassed by Universities over time interact with institutional missions of teaching and research and can contribute to scholarship.

Clifford Lynch Director, CNI