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 OLC Ibero-America, Spain and Portugal is a regional related section from the Online Contents database that is constantly being completed with the addition of selected journals from the competent Libraries, the Library of the Ibero-American Institute Prussian Cultural Heritage (Ibero-America and the Caribbean) and the state and university library SUB Hamburg (Spain and Portugal). Currently more than 1.400 journals are being indexed. Gradually earlier editions of these journals will also be made accessible.