This collection includes working notebooks, drafts of scientific papers, lectures and correspondence. Zeldovich's idiosyncratic work style left its mark on his archives and its organization, particularly the notebooks. He recorded his work (calculations, sketches, articles, reports, and lectures) not on individual sheets of paper, but in notebooks. These notebooks contain many subjects, often running together, overlapping, and with no headings or stopping points, few dates, etc. The same subject is often picked up again in a different notebook. The notebooks also contain works written with coauthors and the work of other authors. Collection also includes reprints of Zeldovich's works in Russian and English for 1934-1970; "Collections of Works by Academician Ya. B. Zeldovich," 1973-1976, consisting of 4 volumes compiled in 1989 by B. I. Khlebnikov. The correspondence contains letters from a number of foreign scientists.

Additional material includes research notebooks; drafts; manuscript reports and addresses; research reports; reviews; recollections; general notebooks.