In the late 1800's, Dutch physician and feminist Aletta Jacobs and her husband C.V. Gerritsen began collecting books, pamphlets and periodicals reflecting the revolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights. By the time their successors finished their work in 1945, the Gerritsen Collection was the greatest single source for the study of women's history in the world, with materials spanning four centuries and 15 languages. The Gerritsen curators gathered more than 4,700 publications from continental Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand, dating from 1543-1945. The anti-feminist case is presented as well as the pro-feminist; many other titles present a purely objective record of the condition of women at a given time.

The database comprises numerous important periodicals published since 1997 in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. It includes journals as well as neswpapers which are mostly in Russian and cover various issues of domestic and international importance.

The world's first database of newspapers and magazines of Ukraine (UDB-UKR) includes publications in Russian, Ukrainian, and English. They cover a broad range of political, economic, and cultural affairs of Ukraine. Topics include Ukraine's progress along the reform path, the view and positions of various political forces, changes in legislation, ethnic relations, and organizational trends in development of the armed forces. The database also includes news wire reports and other products of Ukrainian news agencies. An integral and unique part of this database is the Ukrainian Book Chamber's editions, which list everything published in Ukraine with detailed bibliographic description.