The MSU Catalogue describes class courses and completion requirements for current and potential students. The first course listings for the Mankato State Normal School appeared in the Mankato Weekly Review, a newspaper from that time. Mankato State Normal School began publishing their catalog of classes in 1877. The catalogs were initially called Catalogues and listed the people who had graduated from the previous seven years, as well as the people who were enrolled in the different departments at that time. In 1912 the Post Office began to charge a fee for mailing Catalogs due to the Post Office Appropriations Act of August 24, 1912. As a result of the act, the college began to label the catalogs as School Progress because the State Teachers College was afforded a special rate by the Post Office for mailing this periodical pursuant to the War Revenue Act of October 3, 1917. This explains why some years are given volumes and numbers. In 1955, shortly after the College of Graduate Studies began, there was a separate School Progress then Bulletin just for the graduate students. From 1963-1966, the School Progress catalog was for both undergraduates and graduates. From 1989 to 2007, there was a separate General Education and Diversity Bulletin published.

In the Collection Guide and the Collection, Catalogue, Catalog, School Progress, and Bulletin are sometimes used interchangeably. The Graduate Bulletins and General Education and Cultural Diversity Bulletins are also included in this collection. These specialized publications were added over the years.

The current academic catalogs going back 6 years from present are available on the Minnesota State Mankato website at the following: https://mankato.mnsu.edu/academics/academic-catalog

Academic catalogs older than 6 years are available on ARCH: https://arch.lib.mnsu.edu/islandora/object/MSUrepository%3Acatalogues