Due to its trajectory as a provincial and university library, the General Historical Library holds a large collection of periodicals, consisting of 2,068 journal titles and 220 titles of newspapers. Among them stand out 500 titles of local and provincial publications.

This collection is sizeable and in many cases presents an extraordinary rarity. It began to form in this library or in the libraries of the colleges and convents that were absorbed, and it expanded considerably since 1879 with the Literary Property Act and especially in 1903 when the National Library returned the provincial newspapers that they had been receiving for years. In the twentieth century the library increased its collection with specimens from the Legal Deposit —received between 1958 and 1982— and with the magazines published by the University of Salamanca.

Much of the historical newspaper collection from the province of Salamanca contained in this library can be accessed in full text in the Virtual Library of Historical Newspapers of the Ministry of Culture.

Catalogues of periodicals

• Catálogo de publicaciones periódicas. Salamanca: Universidad, 1983. Print.
• Santander Rodríguez, Teresa. Publicaciones periódicas salmantinas existentes en la Biblioteca Universitaria (1793-1981). Salamanca: Biblioteca Universitaria, 1986. Print.
• Samaniego Boneu, Mercedes and Alonso Martín, Mariano. Publicaciones periódicas salmantinas, 1793-1936. Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, Departamento de Historia Contemporánea, 1984. Print.