[4]: 72–74  In addition to acquiring scientific literature, it conducts applied research in such areas as the archiving of non-textual materials, data visualization and the future Internet.

[6] It also holds a large number of standards, norms, patents, source data, scientific conference proceedings, government research papers and dissertations.

[8] The TIB's holdings total 10 million media units (as of December 31, 2022):[citation needed] In 2010, the physical collection occupied 125 kilometres (78 mi) of shelving.

In 2005 the TIB became the world's first Digital Object Identifier (DOI) registration agency for research data sets in the fields of technology, natural sciences and medicine.

The TIB advises the Leibniz Association's various member organizations, scientists and staff on depositing publications in the repository according to open access guidelines.

[15][16] The amount, usage and importance of non-textual materials such as 3D models, AV media and research data is continually increasing and only a small proportion can be searched at the present time.

The TIB also develops new multimedia analysis methods such as morphology, speech or structure recognition to create indexing and metadata to help researchers and educators make better use of these complex materials.

The TIB is also the scientific information provider for researchers in the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, including Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Ukraine.