diff --git a/src/BloomBrowserUI/collectionsTab/BookButton.tsx b/src/BloomBrowserUI/collectionsTab/BookButton.tsx
index bd4d93a0352e..95bc447c4d7a 100644
--- a/src/BloomBrowserUI/collectionsTab/BookButton.tsx
+++ b/src/BloomBrowserUI/collectionsTab/BookButton.tsx
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ import {
     MenuItemSpec
 } from "./BooksOfCollection";
 
+export const bookButtonHeight = 120;
+
 export const BookButton: React.FunctionComponent<{
     book: IBookInfo;
     collection: ICollection;
@@ -190,7 +192,6 @@ export const BookButton: React.FunctionComponent<{
             props.book.title
         );
 
-    const buttonHeight = 120;
     const renameHeight = 40;
     const downSize = 14; // size of down-arrow icon
 
@@ -270,7 +271,7 @@ export const BookButton: React.FunctionComponent<{
                         (teamCollectionStatus?.who ? " checkedOut" : "")
                     }
                     css={css`
-                        height: ${buttonHeight}px;
+                        height: ${bookButtonHeight}px;
                         width: 90px;
                         border: none;
                         overflow: hidden;
@@ -372,7 +373,7 @@ export const BookButton: React.FunctionComponent<{
                             height: ${renameHeight}px;
                             margin-left: 1px;
                             border: 1px solid ${kBloomLightBlue};
-                            top: ${buttonHeight - renameHeight - 6}px;
+                            top: ${bookButtonHeight - renameHeight - 6}px;
                             padding-top: 4px;
                             position: absolute;
                             font-size: 12px;
diff --git a/src/BloomBrowserUI/collectionsTab/BooksOfCollection.tsx b/src/BloomBrowserUI/collectionsTab/BooksOfCollection.tsx
index 67646725bd53..9b466b4f5152 100644
--- a/src/BloomBrowserUI/collectionsTab/BooksOfCollection.tsx
+++ b/src/BloomBrowserUI/collectionsTab/BooksOfCollection.tsx
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ import { BloomApi } from "../utils/bloomApi";
 import Menu from "@material-ui/core/Menu";
 import MenuItem from "@material-ui/core/MenuItem";
 import NestedMenuItem from "material-ui-nested-menu-item";
-import { BookButton } from "./BookButton";
+import { BookButton, bookButtonHeight } from "./BookButton";
 import { useMonitorBookSelection } from "../app/selectedBook";
 import { element } from "prop-types";
 import { useL10n } from "../react_components/l10nHooks";
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import { useState } from "react";
 import { useSubscribeToWebSocketForEvent } from "../utils/WebSocketManager";
 import { Divider } from "@material-ui/core";
 import { BookSelectionManager, useIsSelected } from "./bookSelectionManager";
+import LazyLoad from "react-lazyload";
 
 export interface IBookInfo {
     id: string;
@@ -33,6 +34,11 @@ export const BooksOfCollection: React.FunctionComponent<{
     collectionId: string;
     isEditableCollection: boolean;
     manager: BookSelectionManager;
+    // If supplied, the collection will be wrapped in a LazyLoad so that most of its rendering
+    // isn't done until it is visible on screen. This requires that we can identify the containing
+    // element which actually scrolls the BooksOfCollection into and out of view. This prop is
+    // required to be a selector which will select that exact element.
+    lazyContainer?: string;
 }> = props => {
     if (!props.collectionId) {
         window.alert("null collectionId");
@@ -139,7 +145,13 @@ export const BooksOfCollection: React.FunctionComponent<{
         props.collectionId
     );
 
-    return (
+    // This is an approximation. 5 buttons per line is about what we get in a default
+    // layout on a fairly typical screen. We'd get a better approximation if we used
+    // the width of a button and knew the width of the container. But I think this is good
+    // enough. Worst case, we expand a bit more than we need.
+    const collectionHeight = bookButtonHeight * Math.ceil(books.length / 5);
+
+    const content = (
         <div
             key={"BookCollection-" + props.collectionId}
             className="bookButtonPane"
@@ -179,6 +191,22 @@ export const BooksOfCollection: React.FunctionComponent<{
             )}
         </div>
     );
+    // There's no point in lazily loading an empty list of books. But more importantly, on early renders
+    // before we actually retrieve the list of books, books is always an empty array. If we render a
+    // LazyLoad at that point, it will have height zero, and then all of them fit on the page, and the
+    // LazyLoad code determines that they are all visible and expands all of them, and we don't get any
+    // laziness at all.
+    return props.lazyContainer && books.length > 0 ? (
+        <LazyLoad
+            height={collectionHeight}
+            scrollContainer={props.lazyContainer}
+            resize={true} // expand lazy elements as needed when container resizes
+        >
+            {content}
+        </LazyLoad>
+    ) : (
+        content
+    );
 };
 
 export interface MenuItemSpec {
diff --git a/src/BloomBrowserUI/collectionsTab/CollectionsTabPane.tsx b/src/BloomBrowserUI/collectionsTab/CollectionsTabPane.tsx
index 739ebf6616a7..4587f2382623 100644
--- a/src/BloomBrowserUI/collectionsTab/CollectionsTabPane.tsx
+++ b/src/BloomBrowserUI/collectionsTab/CollectionsTabPane.tsx
@@ -47,6 +47,16 @@ export const CollectionsTabPane: React.FunctionComponent<{}> = () => {
                         collectionId={c.id}
                         isEditableCollection={false}
                         manager={manager}
+                        // We need this selector to identify the element that scrolls the collections...
+                        // the one that actually has overflow=auto. This is an element nested inside the
+                        // SplitPane, and (since the documentation of react-collapse-pane is broken) I can't
+                        // find any way to put an explicit id on that element. Nor is there a different
+                        // class automatically applied to the second one. So all I can see to do is
+                        // to get it by finding an element with these two classes that follows another one
+                        // that has them. This is of course using knowledge of the implementation of SplitPane
+                        // which we have no business using, and may break with the next version of SplitPane.
+                        // But I can't find a better option.
+                        lazyContainer=".Pane.horizontal ~ .Pane.horizontal"
                     />
                 </div>
             );