The James H. Brickley papers is a collection of materials that documents Brickley's tenure as President of Eastern Michigan University. While not a complete record of his time in office, it is a sample of his adminitration and issues on campus during his tenure from 1975-1979.

Materials are organized into four primary series, Inaguration, Calendars, Clippings and News Releases, and Correspondence. Inaguration materials are organized in chronological order from planning to execution of the weekends events including a high school visit day, the inaguration, the inaguation luncheon and dance, a lecture series, and thank yous. Clippings related to Brickley's inaguration are in the Clippings and News Releases series. Calendars are also organized in chronological order and are the paper appointment calendars of Brickley by calendar year, with the exception of the 1978-79 school year which has an additional pocket calendar.

Clippings and News Releases are organized chronologically by year, with the the exception clippings and news releases related to the inaguration of Brickley. Those are separated into releases from the office of information services and clippings from campus and community news papers.

Correspondence is organized by college and includes correspondence to and from Brickley to administrators and faculty in the College of Arts and Science, College of Business, College of Education, College of Health Services (now College of Health and Human Services), and College of Technology. There are three files that relate to specific issues, College of Education New Detroit Bilingula-Bicultural Education Effort, College of Education Plymouth Schools Project, and an exchange between Brickley and Professor John W. Moore that was futher discussed by college administrators that highlighted a number of issues related to resource allocation on campus. Finally there is a single file with two greeting cards from Brickley Family.

Also included in the collection is a Football Magazine that highlights James Brickley, a report from the Presidential Commission, an Oral History Transcript with Brickley that was taken