Journals are shelved in the periodicals stack in the basement, with the exception of some reference titles kept in the Library office and older, rarer titles shelved in the Priebsch-Closs Collection.

As well as in the obvious area of scholarly/academic journals covering German language and literature, the Library is strong in the following areas:

• Eighteenth-century literary journals (some on microfiche)
• Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century 'Almanache' and 'Taschenbücher'
• Literary journals of the early twentieth century
• Literary journals from East and West Germany of the immediate post-war period (1945ff.)
• Alternative and underground titles of the 1960s and 1970s.

Most of these areas combine original editions with facsimile reprints. In addition, the Library purchases as many indexes and bibliographies of journals as it can, together with secondary literature about individual titles and the writers particularly associated with them.

Within the framework of ULRLS, the Library can offer access to online bibliographies as well as to the full texts of many journals in its field. Guidance can also be given on how to access a number of freely-available full-text database collections.