The article tells the story about the personal collection of the architect and professor Jorge Caron, since its formation to its donation to the library of the Institute of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo in 2006. It argues about the difficulties and challenges faced in safeguarding, handling and organizing it. The second part of it, relates through the unfolding of the research called: Planning, design, production and assembly of the Exhibition: The trajectory of Jorge Caron, financed by Program of Unified Scholarship (PUB-USP), it was possible to carry out the digitization and partial publication. Throughout these activities, a debate was developed on the role of public universities in the preservation and safeguarding of architects' collections. Other variables were also added, such as the use of digital media for its dissemination, the potential of this nature of collections to encourage new research and historiographical reviews, contemplating the production of knowledge, as well as the incorporation of new collections.