This collection was assembled from materials donated over the length of the AIDS History Project. The materials consist primarily of VHS tapes, though Betacam, U-matic, and other video formats, including one and two-inch reel-to-reel tapes, are also found in the collection. There is also a small slide collection, a number of audio cassette sets, and half-inch reel-to-reel format audio tapes.

In order to facilitate access the collection has been divided into three series based primarily on format. Series 1: VHS Tapes; Series 2: Other Video Formats; and 3: Slide and Audio Formats. Within these series the tapes are arranged by producer or subject starting with the Shanti Project and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation – which account for the bulk of the materials. For the most part, the VHS tapes have been placed in the first series, since these items are the most accessible; playback devices do not exist on-site for other formats.

In order to provide a clearer picture of America Responds to AIDS – public service announcement (PSA) materials that contain overlapping materials in a variety of formats – all of these items (including the VHS format and all the reel-to-reel audio tapes) have been placed together in Series 2. A number of tapes in the collection are marked a "property of the MTRC" Library, which appears to be the Multicultural AIDS Resource Center, which was founded in 1984 by Sala Udin. Series 3: Slide and Audio Formats, includes audio materials as well as slides.

Titles have been taken from the tapes and/or their containers; producers and/or subjects of the videos are listed where known. Running times when known have been placed in square brackets at the end of the listing in the following format "[hours:minutes:seconds]."