Find French books and media in the library catalog
Keyword searching
Keyword searching is the default of our (and most) search interface(s). Use it when you're not quite sure what your looking for, or when you want to survey the libraries' holdings on one or several topics.
Search by author
Most authors are searched last name first, e.g.: Bourdieu Pierre.
A few medieval authors are searched by first name, e.g.: Christine de Pisan.
Search by title
Either of these should work because of the presence of what catalogers call uniform and parallel titles.
Title in French, e.g.: À bout de souffle.
Title in English translation, e.g.: Breathless.
Search by subject
When you begin to get a handle on your research topic, you might be aided by the greater precision of a subject (as opposed to keyword) search.
Author as Subject, e.g.: Leiris Michel
Author and Work as Subject, e.g.: Leiris Michel Age d'Homme
Genre as Subject, e.g.: Travelers' writings French
Note: The catalog displays the location of the book, film or other item, its call number, and its status (circulating/non-circulating):
E-Books
ARTFL Project - Full text database containing FRANTEXT (well-known works in the French language published between the medieval and modern periods) and French Women Writers (texts of women writers between the 16th and 19th centuries). (NetID Required)
Eighteenth Century Collections Online - Nearly comprehensive collection of works published in English (and non-English language works printed in the United Kingdom) during the eighteenth century. (NetID Required)
Gallica - A source of thousands of books in the collections of the National Library of France (BnF), but also of digitized manuscripts, still images, audiovisual materials, and more. (Open Access)
HathiTrust Digital Library - Search millions of books, government publications, dissertations, journals, and other published and unpublished materials. Includes hundreds of works in French and Latin, mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries. (NetID Required)
Nineteenth Century Collections Online - Database of primary source collections for the 19th century, primarily anglophone, but including material from other nations and in other languages. (NetID Required)
... Or use Advanced Search in QuickSearch, and use the facets on the left side of the screen to limit your results to "Available online" for electronic resources only.
