The New York Public Library's latest exhibition, Why We Fight: Remembering AIDS Activism, opened last month. Co-curated by the Library's own Jason Baumann and Laura Karas, the exhibition features videos, letters, photographs, ephemera, and other materials from the ACT UP archives, and other collections, in the Library's Manuscripts and Archives Division. While the Library's collections related to HIV and AIDS in both the Manuscripts Division and the General Research Division are especially rich, the Library also provides access to electronic resources that supplement the print holdings. And because of their interrelationship, I have included both gay and lesbian history titles and AIDS titles in the examples below.

One of the most valuable e-resources on gay and lesbian history is LGBT Life with Full Text. This aggregated database includes content from hundreds of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender periodicals, pamphlets, and books. Examples include the 2001 book Transgender and HIV: Risks, Prevention, & Care, the periodical AIDS Patient Care & STDs with issues from 1998 to the present (with embargo), and the 1990 handbook Women, AIDS, and Activism by the ACT UP/ NY Women and AIDS Handbook Group.

It's important to keep in mind, however, that some of the periodicals available in LGBT Life have deeper backfiles in other databases. For example, Journal of Sex Research is available in the full text in LGBT Life beginning in 1975, but JSTOR has full text coverage going back to 1965. Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide is available in the full text from ProQuest Research Library from 1994, while LGBT Life begins its full text coverage in 2000. And while LGBT Life is currently only available at the four research libraries and Mid Manhattan, ProQuest Research Library is available at all NYPL locations and remotely with a library card (Bring it on home!).

So how do you know if a periodical is available in more than one database? The Find E-Journals by Title in Databases page is your answer. The link is located on the left nav of the central Articles and Databases page. There you'll see that The Journal of the History of Sexuality is a very promiscuous title, indeed. That journal is available in LGBT Life, but earlier issues can be found in JSTOR, and more recent issues can be found in ProQuest Research Library and Project Muse.

In addition to full text humanities and social science e-resources, NYPL also subscribes to valuable health databases. MedLine includes many titles related to the AIDS epidemic, such as AIDS and Behavior, Journal of HIV Therapy, and HIV Medicine. MedLine is available to all NYPL patrons onsite and remotely with a card.

So in addition to visiting Why We Fight: the exhibition, you're also invited to explore our important AIDS and HIV-related content online in our subscription databases. For more information about Why We Fight, see the exhibition page on the Library's website.