The Israel State Archives database contains archival material from various periods, beginning with the Ottoman period, through the British Mandate period and including the history of the State of Israel. The material in the Archives is made up of several hundred record groups and sub-groups, linked to some 4,000 series, comprising hundreds of thousands of items.

It should be kept in mind that the archival information available online and presented on the website is only part of the great treasure-trove of information kept in the Israel State Archives. The Archives will continue to update and expand the database and will eventually be able to display to users all unclassified or declassified information. To access the entire body of records available to the public, please make use of the reading room in the Israel State Archives building.

For your information: the navigation aids and much of the material available on-line are in Hebrew.

The database contains several types of material which can be divided into several main collections:
a. Collection of document files
b. Collection of photographs
c. Collection of films
d. Collection of audio tapes
e. Collection of maps
f. Collection of publications by state institutions

The online database is arranged hierarchically so as to reflect, as much as possible, the link between the records and the body that created them. There are five levels in the database, from "record group" to "item" and sometimes to the digitized document.
• Record Group – a government ministry, institution or organization that generates records
• Sub-group – an administrative unit within a ministry (in some cases this is an artificially created unit stemming from the basic structure of the computerized system)
• Series – a collection of records having a common function or subject
• Item – can be a file, box, microfilm or other
• Digital document – the smallest unit of meaningful content in the Archives (a document, a tape, a map).

The hierarchy between the levels is that of parent/child. That is, a sub-group is the child of a record group and the parent of a series.