Sources for periodicals

Image credits: The Women's Librfary, London Metropolitan University  - image references at the end

See our collections on display in our free exhibitions "All work and low pay: the story of women and work" and "Cycling to Suffrage: The Bicycle and Women's Rights, 1890-1914"and related events

Click on the pdfs below for a list of all our titles, indicative lists of our popular and teenage magazines,subscription academic journal titles and key suffrage journals. There are indicative lists of periodicals available with each source note.

all periodicals with location.pdf Popular women''s magazines.pdf Teenage.pdf   Subscriptions to academic titles held in the reading room.pdf   Suffrage Periodicals Microfilmed.pdf

Copying periodicals
Key class numbers and search terms
Key reference sources
Finding periodicals by title, subject, date
Finding the latest research 
Reading a periodical catalogue record
Newspapers
Press cuttings and scrapbooks 
Archives
Museum
Identifying images
UK Web Archive
Expand your search for sources using our collaborations page

The Women's Library, founded in 1926 as the Library of the London Society for Women's Service, exists to document and explore women's lives in Britain in the past, now and in the future. Printed material, ephemera, archives, oral histories and museum objects together form The Women's Library collections. The periodicals collection documents women’s lives through the ages.  The collection includes our earliest titles from 1728 whose content modelled that found in men’s magazines, titles that disseminated women’s political ideas as well as those that illustrate the development of publishing industry for women’s popular magazines from the 19th century and academic journals from the 20th century alongside campaigning and feminist groups' newsletters and professional journals. The periodical collection is largely derived from donations.

The Women’s Library holds approximately 3,300 periodical titles, however library does not hold every issue.   Although not all the titles are catalogued on the printed materials catalogue, all the titles are recorded in the listing attached above. The periodical collection is divided between the open access reading room shelves and the vault.  All materials located in the vault have to be requested. Many of the more fragile periodicals have been microfilmed, for example all the key suffrage journals.  All microfilms are located in the reading room and can be retrieved on request. To check what titles  issues we hold and their location check the printed materials catalogue.

Copying periodicals

To ensure the preservation of our holdings many of our periodicals cannot be photocopied, however the vast majority can be photographed without a flash.  You will need to provide your own camera and you can take up to 25 images for £4.00. You will need to complete a copyright form on the day you take the images and book the camera stand.  For more information on copying items in our collections go to reprography page. 

Key class numbers and search terms

The printed collections of The Women's Library are arranged in the Dewey Decimal Classification and listed on London Metropolitan University's online catalogue, available in the Reading Room and via the website. To search the catalogue for periodical titles limit the catalogue to The Women's Library journals or browse the periodicals spreadsheet.

Key class numbers and search terms for periodicals include:

Key reference sources

The Library holds the following references which provide a history of women's periodical publishing history and include title, date and subject indices:

Delap, L, Dicenzo, M, Ryan, L.(eds) Feminism and the periodical press, 1900-1918. London : Routledge, 2006 Reading room 052 FEM

Doughan, D. Feminist periodicals, 1855-1984 an annotated critical bibliography of British, Irish, Commonwealth and international titles.  Reading room open shelves and Quick Ref 016.3054205.  You can search by name, title, subject and date.  The book provides descriptions of the titles.

White, Cynthia. Women's magazines, 1693-1968. London : Joseph, 1970.  Reading room open shelves 052.082 WHI

Limit the online catalogue to The Women’s Library journals:

 Identify periodicals by title by inputting the title in the “title field” if you know the exact title or use the keyword search.

 Identify periodicals by subject by inputting your relevant term/s in the keyword search. Each source note provides examples of titles. Look at the bibliographies in published research.

 Identify titles by editor by inputting your relevant term/s in the keyword search 

 Identify titles by date using reference materials such as those stated above. See the attached listings.   

Identify the latest research by browsing the current academic journals tables of contents or accessing your institution’s e-resources.  If you are a London Metropolitan University student or staff member you can access London Metropolitan’s databases  and e-journals. If you are from another university you should be able to access your institution’s e-resources.  Search across the large interdisciplinary databases for journal articles and a collate a list of key journal titles relevant to your subject.

 Reading a periodicals catalogue record

•  Information within [ ] is estimated information
•  The beginning of a sequence always begins with a capital letter, for example
• Vol. 26 no 4 (July 1988)-vol. 28 no. 5 (Sept. 1990); No. 10 (Feb. 1996)-
•  Months are written as follows: Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.
•  ; indicates a gap in a run
•  - continuity of run. For example, Vol. no. (date information)-vol no. (date information) This indicates a continuous run from the first date to the last date.
• Vol. no. (date information)- indicates that it is an current periodical and we are receiving the title regularly

 Name changes:

•  continues previous title
•  continued by later title

Newspapers, Press cuttings and scrapbooks

The Women’s Library’s does hold newspapers that are specific to women, for example we hold key suffrage newspaper titles on microfilm.  Find a list attached at the top of the document.

A key collection are the biographical press cuttings cuttings that are largely composed of obituaries printed in British broadsheets.  The Women's Library also holds microfilmed 19th and 20th century press cuttings up to 1979 organised by udc subject classification. There are scrapbooks of press cuttings on various subjects. To identify these resources input press cuttings AND a subject term in the any text field in the archives catalogue’s “any text” field.

The Women's Library does not hold complete runs of broadsheet and tabloid periodicals.  Please refer to The British Library's newspaper library.

Archives

Many of our Periodicals were deposited alongside archives.  Organisations such as One Parent Families or the National Federation of Women's Institutes have deposited their magazines alongside their archives.  So if you are interested in a particular organisation check to see if we have their archives: sometimes these include working papers about the production of the periodical. 

Individuals have also deposited periodicals as part of their library and archive; Sheila Rowbotham collected and then deposited a number of women's liberation movement periodicals.

Where possible we have transferred Periodicals from our Archives to the Printed Collections, to make it easier for users to access complete series.    We keep a note in the original archive catalogue to say which periodicals have been transferred.

Search by the periodical title, such as Spare Rib, or if you are interested in particular format search for terms such as newsletter, bulletin, or magazine

Museum

Our Museum collection includes a number of objects that were created to publicise a particular periodical - such as posters, badges, postcards.  Search by the periodical title such as Spare Rib

A search for objects with the format name can be useful, for example objects with the term magazine in the description will bring up photographs and postcards with images of women reading magazines.

A selection of images from the collection, including images of and from periodicals, can be viewed and purchased at the Mary Evans Picture Library

Identifying images

Images can be found throughout The Women's Library's collections. Many digital images are available on Flickr, Vads, the archives catalogue (click on the number in the left hand side) and Mary Evans Picture Library.  Use Mary Evans Picture Library's fast service for a non-watermarked high resolution images suitable for publication. If you require an image which has not been digitised you are welcome to use our reprographic service. Normal copyright conditions will apply.

UK Web Archive

In partnership with The British Library, from 2005 The Women's Library  has been collecting web sites related to Women's Issues and they include periodicals are sites such as: The F-word, Subtext Magazine, KnockBack Magazine and HerStoria Magazine. 

Expand your periodical search

Identify periodical titles or issues available in union catalogues of multiple institutions such as Suncat  see our collorabations page.

Further information

The staff of The Women’s Library can help you find material relating to your subject area; please don’t hesitate to ask. You can contact the Information Desk staff prior to your visit on email twlinfodesk@londonmet.ac.uk, by telephone 020 7320 3515 or in person at the Enquiry Desk when in the Reading Room.

Image references: An issue of Reg Rag (1970-1980s); a plate in The Queen, lady's newspaper and court chronicle 1902 ; The dress review, Feb 1903