Introduction

Large archive collection of the Women’s Liberation Movement, particularly second-wave materials from late 1960s to 1970s, by and about women.

Our non-fiction collection consists of about 5,000 books dating from 1900 to the present day. The collection is very strong in the areas of the arts, politics and the Women’s Liberation Movement, women’s history, and mental and physical health. We also have about 2,500 works of fiction from all around the world, the majority of which are in English and some in various European and Latin American languages.

Our poetry collection of some 500 publications represents a significant number of little-known and/or self-published woman poets, as well as poetry by more well-known and commercially published women.The general section is supported by a wide-ranging bibliography section and three donations: the Matriarchy Collection, the Marie Stopes/Birth Control Collection, and the recently acquired collection of the Women’s Health Library.

An estimated 1,500 periodicals titles are represented. They date from the late 1960’s to the present day and they occupy about 85 metres of library shelving.