The information presented on these pages covers all areas of the French-speaking world.

When you start looking for a source that is not available in your College or University library, you have several options. You can consult resources in the UK, in metropolitan France or in other speaking areas of the French-speaking world. You can also consult the section on French virtual sources.

French Resources in the UK

French Resources in Metropolitan France

French Resources in Other Areas of the French-Speaking World

The majority of the institutions listed in the UK and metropolitan France will have an online catalogue, which means you do not need to phone, email or go there. Access to online catalogues in other areas of the French-speaking world may vary and will depend on the French-speaking area covered (the descriptions listed under a source will usually indicate what type of access is available).

Before choosing the institution that you think is the most likely to have your source remember that many countries (including the United Kingdom and France) have META-OPACs, that is, online catalogues which collect all the OPACs of a certain area. COPAC, for example, collect major British OPACs; CCFR collects French major online catalogues. And there are even META-OPACs which allow you to do online bibliographical searches of different national OPACs at once. This facility gives you the greatest overview of what is available on a trans-national level. We therefore suggest you should start by having a look at the META-OPACs relevant to French Studies, included in our French Virtual Resources.

Although META-OPACs permit you to scan a massive amount of books (authors, titles, and subjects), this information will not include any articles. So, if you are looking for secondary literature, especially articles and chapters in books, the best way of resourcing these materials is to consult the MLA International Bibliography which will be available on CD-ROM or in print at your University Library. The MLA International Bibliography provides a listing and subject index for books and articles published in modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. It indexes over 50000 books and articles each year.