On our collection website , you can search directly in the catalogue. After entering a search term, various filter options appear, with Categories being particularly useful. What you find depends very much on the terms you use. Try out some different keywords - both terms directly and those more indirectly related to your topic. An initial exploration in the literature can help you find relevant keywords, names of people or organisations.

Women's thesaurus

To describe our collection, we use the Women's Thesaurus: a list of terms and concepts that we link to collection items as tags. By clicking through on such a term, you will discover other material associated with the same tag.

Research in Atria's archives always starts with the description or inventory of an archive. An inventory is an overview of the contents, enabling you to search specifically for documents relevant to your research. An archive does not have an inventory? Then look under the heading Content to see what materials it contains.

On the collection website you can also apply filters on the left-hand side, for example to select by period or language, so that you can further tailor the material to your research question.

Once you know which archives and documents you want to see, you can make an appointment to visit the study room. There the material will be laid out for you. Always mention the title of the archive and the inventory numbers you want to consult. Please note: the study room will be closed from Friday 3 April to Tuesday 16 June 2026 due to our move to Utrecht. 

Some archives have already been digitised and can be consulted directly online.

The library collection includes about 120,000 books, brochures, reports, dissertations, theses, journals and articles on gender equality and women's movements, and sheet music by women composers. The material is mainly in Dutch and English. More and more publications are available digitally and can be read directly online.

You can come by appointment to borrow books and consult theses, journals and sheet music. When the condition of the material permits, scans of journal articles and sheet music can be made - for private use only. Please note: the study room will be closed from Friday 3 April to Tuesday 16 June 2026 due to our move to Utrecht. 

Atria also provides access to external online collections or repositories focused on gender studies and gender history. These collections are available via the public PCs in the reading room and online for users with a subscription. We are exploring opportunities to expand the offer of these collections in the future. We currently offer the following collections:

Diversity and Ethnic Studies

A collection of 5,000 e-books and PDFs from academic publishers on diversity and inclusion. You can search by subject, title or author. Topics range from feminism and women's movement to Islam, lesbianism, slavery, disability and literature. All publications are available full-text.

Women and Social Movements International

A full-text database with 150,000 pages of material from 300 different collections. The database provides information on the development of organisations such as the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Inter-American Commission on Women / Comisión Interamericana de Mujeres, Women's Africa Committee of the Africa-American Institute, International Council of Jewish Women. The material includes letters,diaries and conference proceedings of a variety of women's organisations - from the World's Anti-Slavery Convention (1840) to Beijng+15 and the Casablanca Dream Conference (2007).
Please note: this collection is temporarily unavailable.

Women's Studies International

A comprehensive database with over 871,000 references to feminist research from 1972 to the present. The sources are diverse and include newspapers, journals, newsletters, bulletins, books, reports, conference proceedings, theses, dissertations, NGO publications, websites and grey literature. Women's Studies International includes the following databases: Women Studies Abstracts, Women's Studies Bibliography Database, Women's Studies Database, Women Studies Librarian, Women of Colour and Southern Women: A Bibliography of Social Science Research, and Women's Health and Development: An Annotated Bibliography.
Please note: this collection is temporarily unavailable.

Gerritsen Women's History Collection

A comprehensive full-text database of digitised material on the international women's movement and gender equality. The collection contains over 200 periodicals and more than 4,000 books in various languages, dating from the 16th century to 1945. A significant part of this international collection consists of Dutch material.