Directories contain alphabetical listings of the inhabitants of a locality with their addresses and occupations. The Prince Edward Island directories, which began to appear in 1864, may be directories for the entire province or for the city of Charlottetown alone. Some include business directories grouped by type of business and/or by place. City directories also often include a listing by street address. Until the turn of the century these volumes appear to have been published about once a decade although sometimes by more than one company such as Lovell's, Teare's, McAlpine's and Frederick's. Later they appeared approximately every five years until city directories began to be published every year. Coverage, particularly of the rural areas, is very uneven and should never be considered comprehensive.

Yearbooks are a compendium of statistical and other information about P.E.I. history, government, finances, military units and personnel, education, agriculture, fisheries, public health, justice, public works, postal facilities, clergy, and societies. Names of officials and prominent persons in all these areas are listed.

Trade directories contain lists of businesses by community and alphabetically by commodity or service. They also contain statistics of industry and names of government officials and trade commissioners.

The collection contains microfilmed copies of directories, year books, and trade directories of Prince Edward Island chronologically arranged (with the exception of Ballingall's 1908 which was received at a later date) from 1864 to 1980. There are also two original volumes of Might's Charlottetown City Directory for 1978 and 1985 and a copy of Registered Motor Vehicles, P.E.I. revised to 4 June 1921.