The International Institute for Archival Science (IIAS) stems from the Centre for Technical and Professional Problems in Archives, which was founded in 1986 on the initiative of Peter Pavel Klasinc, at the time director of the Regional Archives of Maribor and organiser of archival meetings in Radenci. The latter were related to the former Republic of Yugoslavia archives but also involved co-operation with an increasing number of archivists coming from foreign countries such as Austria, Hungary and Italy, focusing on the Balkan-Danube area. After the political events of the early 1990s many new states contacted the Centre, which in 1992 was reorganised and renamed as the International Institute for Archival Science (IIAS). It also began issuing the a publication named Atlanti, devoted to problems in the field of archival science.

Since that time initiatives of the Institute include: the Glossary of Regional Historical Terminology, edited in 1995 in German, Italian and Slovene; the International Course in Archival Technique held in 1996, involving high-level students from many European and non-European countries; the meeting in 1998 dedicated to the use of informatics in the field of archives; and the International Day held in 2000 in Trieste with the co-organisation of the Municipality in which nearly 200 people took part, among them Mayor Illy. As a result of a protocol signed with Italian Ministry of Culture's Department for Archives and Libraries in October 2005, IIAS's secretariat is now hosted by the Italian State Archives in Trieste.

IIAS now comprises 19 member countries: Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Poland, Slovak Republic, Russia, Serbia-Montenegro, Slovenia, Spain and Ukraine. IIAS is a member of International Council on Archives (ICA).