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French Research Guide |
Reference Desk (413) 774-1509 |
Selected Reference Sources
Use reference sources to choose a topic, understand terminology, locate background information, and identify good search terms.
- Grand Larousse en 5 Volumes, R 443 L332gr
- Le Petit Larousse, R 443 L332p
- Harrap's New Standard French and English Dictionary, R 443.2 H296st
- The Firefly French/English Visual Dictionary, R 443.2 C789fi
- The Cambridge French-English Thesaurus, R 44.21 L242c
- 501 French Verbs, R 448.8 K33f
Finding Books (and more) in the Online Catalog
Books accumulate and synthesize information from various sources. Use the Online Catalog to find circulating books by searching by subject for terms relating to France and French culture. Then browse the subheadings under the subject to narrow your search. Subject headings are often subdivided by place and time period. Examples:
- France - Art - History
- France - Artists - Biography
- France - Civilization - 18th Century
- France - Civilization - 1830-1900
- France - Economic Conditions - 1945
- France - Foreign Relations
- France - History (subdivided by century, period, ruler)
- France - Painters (or Painting)
- France - Politics and Government
- France - Social Conditions
- France - Social Life and Customs
- France - World War - 1939-1945
- French - Drama - 17th Century
- French - Fiction
- French - Language - Dictionaries
- French - Literature - History and Criticism
The advantage of keyword searching using Boolean logic is the ability to combine multiple concepts:
- Use "and" between major concepts to narrow the search so that all concepts are found in each record in the search results
- Example: France and war and 1945
- Combine the concepts used in subject headings into keyword searches
- Subject headings are always good search terms
- The same keyword search strategies can be utilized in research databases
- Many also assign subject headings to articles and allow subject searching
- Explore the advanced searching capabilities of the databases.
Finding Articles in Research Databases
(go to DA Orgs/Library for off-campus access)
Database handout with descriptions
French Databases
- Global Reference Center
Includes the French encyclopedia, Encyclopaedia Universalis, the most comprehensive encyclopedia in the French language--provides access to more than 33,000 articles including weekly and monthly dossiers to understand the issues and problems of our times; 17,000 media items; a world atlas with over 700 maps; an integrated dictionary with 120,000 entries; and a guide to selected Web sites--
General Databases
- Encyclopaedia Britannica Online (full text)
- EBSCOhost databases: Use EBSCOhost Web to search a topic in several databases at once--includes MLA, Literary Reference Center, and History Reference Center
Academic Search Premier (full text plus citations and abstracts only)
MAS Ultra - School Edition (1975-present)(full text)
Provides articles from popular, high school magazines and reference sources
Student Research Center is a user-friendly, graphical interface for MAS Ultra - InfoTrac databases: Use
InfoTrac Web to search a topic in several databases at once
Academic OneFile (full text plus citations and abstracts only for scholarly journals)
Expanded Academic (1980-present) (full text plus citations only)
General Reference Center (1980-present) (full text plus citations only for general interest periodicals)
General OneFile (1980-present)(full text plus citations only) - JSTOR (full text)
An archive of core scholarly journals back to the 1800's--does not include current issues from the last 3-5 years - Readers Guide Retrospective (1890-1982)(citations only for general interest periodicals from 1890-1982)
News
- Lexis-Nexis (news, law & legislation, statistics)(full text)
Includes major U.S. and international newspapers plus non-English language publications--provides full text for over 30 French language news sources (see News/Foreign Language News/French Language Sources/Source List for a list of sources available)
Specialized Databases
- Biography Resource Center (full text)(reference sources plus magazine articles)(Tutorial)
Narrow the search by nationality in the Biographical Facts Search - Grove Art Encyclopedia (full text)--search by artist or country
- CountryWatch (full text)
- History Reference Center (full text)
- History Study Center (full text)
- CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online)(full text)(1991-present)
- Contemporary Literary Criticism (full text)
- LitFinder (full text plus citations only)--offers searching by nationality
- Literary Reference Center* (full text)--provides information on thousands of literary works across disciplines and timeframes
- Classical Music Library--audio
- Grove Music Online (full text) (demo)--see the entries for specific musicians or for the music of specific countries or regions (France, Canada, etc.)
- Smithsonian Global Sound--audio for world music--search by country, cultural group, or artist
- Contemporary World Music
- Naxos Music Library--audio for world music--search by country under Advanced Search
- Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America (full text)
Selected Internet Resources
(Most sites are in French)
(Websites should always be evaluated for authorship, accuracy, and currency)
Dictionaries/Language Resources
- Le Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique
Provided by a provincial organisation in Quebec, this is a French-English-Latin dictionary--includes definitions - Le Trésor de la Langue Française Informatisé
Online equivalent to the 16 volume encyclopedic work on the French language from 1789-1960 - ARTFL Project: French Dictionary
- ARTFL Project: French Conjugator
- Leximagne (hundreds of French dictionaries, glossaries, and word lists)
- Word Reference
- ILoveLanguages: French
Selected Gateways, Historical, and Literary Sites
- French Studies Web (Association of College & Research Libraries)(annotated links to scholarly web resources)
- French Studies Web: Reference Shelf
- Portal to the World: France (maintained by the Library of Congress)
- Resources for French Studies (U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
- Good Web Sites for French Studies (John Hopkins U.)
- Online Resources for the Study of French and Francophone Literature and Culture (U. of California, Santa Barbara)
- Tennessee Bob's Famous French Links (collected by a French professor at U. of Tennessee)
- Le Quid (French)(an almanac/encyclopedia with information about both France and the world--statistics and maps)
- Le Quartier Francais du Village Planetaire (French & English)(gateway to news, museums, government information, reference tools, cultural topics and more)
- History of France: Primary Documents (Brigham Young U.)(French historical documents transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated--from the antiquity to the present)
- H-France History: Online Resources
- Fabula Virtual Library (U. of Ottawa)
- French Language & Literature Resources (Yale U.)(includes reference sources and electronic texts)
- Literary Criticism: French Literature (Internet Public Library)
- Littérature de Langue Française en Ligne (CUNY)(this megasite provides links to author sites, online texts, dictionaries, and other literature resources--provides links by century)
- ClicNet (Swarthmore U.)(online texts arranged by genre, and keyword-searchable--includes links to web resources covering French language, art, literature, and culture)
- Corpus de la Littérature Narrative (the first volume of B.A.S.I.L.E.--Base internationale de Littérature Électronique) (a digital library of about 1000 narrative works including novels, tales, short stories)
- Classici Stranieri
- Astrolabe (Répertoire de sites littéraires)
- French Language Resources (Electronic Text Center, U. of Virginia)
- French Literature Links (from Digital Librarian)
- Muse: le répertoire des ressources poétiques francophones
- Le Meilleur (The Best) de l'internet: A Review of French-Language Information Sources
- Adwaba Bienvenue Karibu: In the World of African Literatures (provides the text of novels, short stories, plays and poetry written by African women authors writing in French--includes a general overview of the literature, biographical information, and links to other literary and political resources)
- France Maps
Digital Libraries
- ABU: la Bibliothèque Universelle (produced and maintained by the Association des Bibliophiles Universels)(find full-text for 300 literary works by author's name or title--authors include Balzac, Flaubert, Hugo, Racine, and Voltaire)
- Athena Textes Français (comprehensive lists of French authors on the Internet)
- France in America/France en Amerique (bilingual digital library from the Library of Congress--explores the history of the French in North America)
- Gallica (the digital library hosted by the Bibliotheque nationale de France--contains over 70,000 digitized works, more than 80,000 images, and hours of audio resources--includes a chronology of French history from the Middle Ages to the 19th century plus supplementary write-ups that can be searched by theme--substantial collections in French travel history, utopian writings, the history of French colonisation and exploration of Africa, and key French authors such as Zola and Proust--no cost)
- Poesie Francaise (selection of French poetry from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century--searchable database)
French Journals and Periodicals
- Le Nouvel Observateur (online version of the French periodical)
- Persee (full text of French journals in social and human sciences)(established by the Ministry of State Education, Higher Education and Research)
- Revues.org (portal of scholarly journals in international studies, social sciences and humanities)
- Cairn (portal of scholarly journals in the social sciences)
News
- Lexis-Nexis (news, law & legislation, statistics)(full text)
Includes major U.S. and international newspapers plus non-English language publications--provides full text for over 30 French language news sources (see News/Foreign Language News/French Language Sources/Source List for a list of sources available) - Le Monde
- Le Monde Diplomatique
- Revue de presse quotidienne de Radio France Internationale
- L'Humanité
- Liberation
- Radio France Internationale (daily news)
- Le Figaro
- Newspapers: France
Organizations
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