James Madison University
Libraries

Foreign Languages, Literatures, & Cultures

This guide is intended to introduce you to resources in the study of foreign languages, literatures, and cultures. Guides for specific languages are located in the sidebar on the left.

General Research Tips:

To browse JMU Libraries' foreign language collections, try starting in the following areas. For more specific browsing areas, see the language-specific guides to the left.

PA: Greek and Latin languages and literatures

PC: Romanic languages | includes French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish

PD: Germanic languages | includes German

PG: Slavic languages | includes Russian

PJ: Oriental languages and literatures | includes Arabic

PK: Indo-Iranian languages and literatures | includes Persian

PL: Languages of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania | includes Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Swahili

PQ: French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish literature

PT: German literature

Use LEO, the library catalog, to find books owned by the JMU Libraries, and WorldCat to find books not owned by JMU Libraries.  If you need a book the Libraries don't own, you may request it through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Library Catalogs:

	JMU Library Catalog: The JMU Libraries' online catalog includes information about books, films and videos, government documents, music and spoken recordings (CDs, LPs, cassettes), computer software, music scores, special collections, maps and atlases, and online resources.
	WorldCat: A union catalog of more than 110 million titles from 69,000 libraries worldwide.  This resource includes manuscripts written as early as the 1000 BC, books, audio visual media, and Internet sources.

 

When researching literature in a library catalog, subject headings are often the most efficient way of searching the library catalog.  Below are examples of several types of subject headings that will be useful to you as you research foreign languages, literatures, and cultures.

Subject Heading Type	Form/Examples	Typical search results
Author as subject	Last name, first name Bernhardt, Sarah	Books about the author, her writings, life, and influences.  Use for researching authors as well as their works.
National literature	Nationality + literature German literature Bolivian literature Caribbean Literature (French)	Books that broadly discuss the literature of a particular nation.
Foreign Films	Motion pictures + language/country Motion pictures – French Motion pictures – France Motion pictures + geographic location + language Motion pictures – Africa – French speaking	Films in a specific language.You can also search for the subject heading "feature films" and limit to a specific language.
Language resources	Specific language + language Spanish language French language Italian language German language	Books about a particular language. Look for subject headings such as "Spanish language dictionaries" for dictionaries in Spanish.

 

Have a suggestion? Need Help? Ask Melissa S. Van Vuuren.
This page last reviewed by M. Van Vuuren on 8/05/2009.

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