IISH facilitates scholarly research through its collections, conferences and symposia, and publications, several of which are available in PDF format. Full bibliographic information is provided for each citation, and users can browse by year or search by keyword. All archive names have been transliterated using the Latin alphabet, and English translations are provided.
Users can choose from a table of contents or search by keyword.
Where available, addresses, phone numbers, hours of operation, contact persons, and email addresses are given. The IISH also maintains two thorough and well-organized sections of the WWW Virtual Library, one of the oldest catalogs of the web. These virtual libraries covering Labour and Business and Women's History are organized through an extensive tree structure and are searchable by keyword. Also on the IISH site, Stefan Landsberger of the Sinological Institute of Leiden maintains an online exhibition of Chinese propaganda posters. Other poster collections include communist posters from the former Soviet Union, Cuba and China, and Dutch socialist political posters.