Selection, acquisition and space for storage of periodicals' collection, bring problems to the libraries. Considerations are made about the periodicals' titles acquired by buying, donation and exchange. Taking into consideration the great number of titles that already exist and the scarce budget, a study was made on the consulting of periodicals at the Library of the University São Paulo School of Nursing. Its objetives were: to identify the title of the most consulted periodicals in 1981; and the idiom in which they are published; how they were obteined. The findings, presented in Tables and Graphs, show that, as expected, the most consulted periodicals are the ones published in Portuguese, although they are in much lesser numbers. They also show a large number of consultations of the donated periodicals. The study includes a recommendation on the acquisition of periodicals.