In a reflection of the research focus of the Institute, the scope of the library collection extends primarily from the Qing Dynasty onward to modern and contemporary Chinese history and includes: political, military, diplomatic, social, economic, cultural, and intellectual and other topics central to the humanities and social sciences. Before the establishment of cross-strait postal communications, the library emphasized the collecting of books published in Mainland China (including books published both before and after 1949). Later, the scope of the list was expanded to include topics such as the following: women's history, history of the Qing Dynasty, history of the early Republican period, history of the Communist party, cross-strait research, research on Hu Shih, research on Chiang Kai-shek, and oral history, among others.
In terms of the types of materials the library has in its' holdings, the majority are monographs, journals, and microforms. Eighty percent of the library's holdings are written in Chinese (including those published in the Mainland). The rest are mainly in Western languages. The high quality and range of the collection has been recognized for many years, both in Taiwan and internationally and has become an important venue for research on modern Chinese history. Moreover, in recent years, the collection has served as an important support for cross-strait academic exchanges.
The library's special collection includes: materials from every level of the Mainland China Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (C.P.P.C.C.); Local Gazetteers for every Mainland Chinese province, county, and city; Collection of Reprinted Rare Chinese Local Gazetteers (稀見中國地方志彙刊); Collection of Documents Concerning China's Northwest (中國西北文獻叢書); Compendium of Sources from the Republican Period, volumes 1-5 (民國叢書1-5編); Expanded Edition of Historical Materials of the History of the Republic of China (中華民國史史料長編); Proceedings from the Executive Yuan of the Wang Jingwei Government (汪偽政府行政院會議錄); Official Bulletin of the National Government Control Yuan (國民政府監察院公報); Official Bulletin of the Nanjing Nationalist Government Ministry of Foreign Affairs (南京國民政府外交部公報); Official Gazetteer of the Manchukuo Government (偽滿洲國政府公報); Complete Records of the Establishment of the Chinese Communist Party (中國共產黨建設全書); Nationalist Government Historical Materials Collection (民國史料叢刊), and others. (Please search library's collection via Academia Sinica Library Catalog)
The Mainland Chinese newspapers and periodicals collection is primarily academic. Within the collection what is especially noteworthy are the copies of newspapers and periodicals, and school newspapers from each university and academic institute, such as: Modern Chinese History Studies (近代史研究), Jindaishi Ziliao (近代史資料), Historical Archives (歷史檔案), Historical Research (歷史研究), The Republican Daily, Shanghai (上海民國日報), and so forth. Besides this, the library also has more than 20,000 Qing Dynasty and early Republican string-bound books and 10,000 pre-1949 books published during the time of the Nationalist Government. Both collections are important examples of the library's holdings. With respect to the nearly 20,000 reels of microfilm, the more noteworthy are for example: the Foreign Office Files (英國外交檔案), China's Imperial Maritime Customs reports (中國海關報告), Qing Dynasty Imperial Edicts (清宮上諭檔), Qing Dynasty Genealogical Archives (清代譜牒檔案), Modern China Trade History documents (中國近代貿易史資料), China Peasant's Cooperative Movement History documents (中國農民合作化運動史料), Tianjin Municipal Archives Microfilm historical documents (天津檔案館微縮史料), Xinhua Ribao (新華日報), The World Morning Post (世界日報), Xijing Daily (西京日報), Henan Daily (河南日報), Shanxi Daily (山西日報), The Republican Daily, Shandong (山東民國日報), The Crystal, Shanghai (上海晶報), Beiping Morning Post (北平晨報), Shuntian Shibao (順天時報), Shanghai Times (上海時報), The Truth Post (實報), and so forth.

Future Developments

Under the guidance of the Institute's library committee, over the years the library has already made considerable progress in establishing an excellent basis for library service. In the future, the library will continue to promote digitalization, resource consolidation, interlibrary cooperation, and participation in the setting up and sharing of information. To improve the foundation that has already been established, the library will work to create a more convenient academic research environment, and in terms of its service to the broader community, the library intends to open a window onto the research materials available for the study of modern history and further expand internationally the service and scope of the library's modern history research collections.