According to the results of the study, it is established that the analysis of doctrinal developments allows us to identify several approaches to determining the content of the concept "information resources": - identification of information resources with information (knowledge); - understanding of information resources as structured information (information recorded on physical media, documents and arrays of documents); - inclusion in the content of information resources not only information, but also information technology and personnel involved in information processing). The second approach has become the most widespread – the understanding of information resources as information recorded on physical media. Information resources are available for use and designed to meet the needs of participants of information relations symbiosis of information content (knowledge) and its presentation (material carrier) in the form of documents, databases, registers, cadastres and other sources of organized information. When it comes to national information resources, in fact it is about objectified information (fixed on certain material media), the material media of which are in state, communal or private ownership. This information may relate to different spheres of human life, society, state, and therefore belongs to different categories in terms of restricting access and so on. National information resources are systematized information resources that contain information regardless of the type, content, form, time and place of its creation (including public information, state information resources and other information), designed to meet the vital social needs of man, society and state and provided with access to the relevant participants of information relations within the limits established by law and procedure. Such information is registered, evaluated, has acquired special properties that constitute its essence and make it an information resource, on the one hand, and the subject of consumption – on the other.