Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) is the most comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs. It publishes a wide range of scholarship from 1991 onward that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, journals and policy briefs. CIAO is also widely-recognized source for teaching materials including original case studies written by leading international affairs experts, course packs of background readings for history and political science classes, and special features like the analysis of a bin Laden recruitment tape with video.

The PAIS Archive includes carefully selected resources to help users identify and locate information about significant political, economic, social and cultural issues affecting international and local communities, countries, governments and society. Its broad topical scope and retrospective coverage complement more specialized databases that cover the humanities, health care, agriculture, sociology, history, and many other disciplines, providing historical perspective on many of the 20th century's public and social policies. Also, the PAIS Archive database contains references to monographs, periodical articles, notes and announcements, and analytics, and the original historical subject headings have been retained within the file for enhanced searching capabilities.

IBSS covers core social science literature in disciplines of anthropology, economics, political science and sociology, as well as a wide range of interdisciplinary fields. IBSS provides bibliographic citations to more than two million journal articles, reviews, books and selected chapters - from over 100 countries and in more than 90 languages. Over 2,800 journals are regularly indexed and some 7,000 books are included each year. The Atlas thesaurus aids in finding works on a country or region; other speciaized thesauri and indexes are provided.