Nien Cheng (1915-2009) was the author of the 1986 best-selling memoir Life and Death in Shanghai, which details her imprisonment under the Red Guard in the People's Republic of China from 1966 to 1973. Cheng forged a relationship with Slippery Rock University through the efforts of Louis Razzano, SRU Vice-Provost and Associate Vice President, and bequeathed her library and personal papers to the University.
The Slippery Rock University Archives and Special Collections houses a number of oral history collections. Many of these collections are about Slippery Rock University history from the founding of the Slippery Rock Normal School all the way to present day. Additionally, the Dixon Baseball Oral History Collection concerns the history of baseball from local western Pennsylvania residents.