French Language and Literature Collections

Collecting Goals	General Collections	Rare Book Collection	Other Web Sites
Reference Collections	Media Collections	Related Collections	Library Contacts
Electronic Collections	Microform Collections	UNC Web Sites	Faculty Library Liaison

Collecting Goals:

The French language and literature collections support teaching and research in French at the undergraduate and graduate levels in the Department of Romance Languages and in other departments and programs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They also serve as a resource for the people of the State.

Reference Collections:

The library has extensive reference materials to support the study of French literature. Access to many of the major abstracting and indexing tools, notably the MLA International Bibliography Plus Full Text via Chadwyck-Healey's LiteratureOnline, is available online. Printed materials are available primarily in the Reference Department. E-Reference materials are a good place to begin the study of French literature, while research guides and tutorials facilitate exploration in depth in selected areas. The Reference Department also has software for textual analysis. For further information about reference materials or help using them, please consult the Reference staff.

Electronic Collections:

The Library offers online access to 2,000 older titles and reference works that are important to the study of French language and literature through ARTFL (American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language). This database includes primary sources and secondary literature from the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which are about equally represented, with a smaller selection of texts from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and seventeenth centuries. ARTFL permits both the rapid exploration of single texts and inter-textual research that would be virtually impossible without the aid of a computer. The Literature Resource Center offers a wealth of biographical information about French authors, including portraits; critical essays and plot summaries of literary works; and full-text journal articles on many topics. Information about electronic journals related to the study of French literature is available on a collected list. However, the best way to find information about individual electronic serials is to enter a title search on the Library's "E-Journal Finder" web page. For further information about these titles, please consult the Reference staff. To request a title, please contact the West European Bibliographer.

General Collections:

The Library has acquired French materials since the early 1800s and maintains a research-level collection for the study of French language and French literature in all appropriate languages. It supports the study of the standard periods of the field, especially the Middle Ages, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries; genres, particularly theater; topics; and traditions of French literature, language, and philology, long a strength of the French section. The Library holds most of the works of the major and minor authors of French literature and many current writers. Bibliographies, histories, and critical studies enrich the study of these materials. In response to changing approaches to the study of literature, the Library has made an effort to acquire most works of theory, methodology, and cultural studies published in French and English. It has also added titles about women, Francophone literature, and film. The collection of serials that support French linguistic and literary studies is also quite extensive. The Library subscribes to 56 percent of the journals indexed in the annual Bibliographie d'histoire littéraire française. A list of current print subscriptions in the discipline is available, as is a bibliography of French Periodicals, 17th-20th Centuries held in the Triangle. For further information or to request a title, please consult the West European Bibliographer.

Media Collections:

The Media Resources Center, located in the House Undergraduate Library, has about 500 feature and documentary films on France that are accessible by country, title, genre, and director. For further information about this collection or to request a title, please consult the Media Resources Librarian.

Microform Collections:

The Microform Reading Room contains hundreds of titles on microform that would be of interest to faculty and students of French literature, particularly literary journals from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There is also a long run of the Journal des débats et décrets. For further information about microforms or help using them, please consult the Reference staff. To request a title, please contact the West European Bibliographer.

Rare Book Collection

The Rare Book Collection in Wilson Library has several collections pertaining to the study of French literature. Among the most noteworthy are the Estienne Imprint Collection, the French Revolution and Napoleon Collection, the Mazarinade Collection, a collection on French History and Printing, and an excellent collection of materials related to the poet Francis Carco. In addition, many French books published before 1800 are held in this location. For further information, please consult the Curator of the Rare Book Collection.

Related Collections:

Collections in African studies, communication studies, comparative literature, folklore, history, linguistics, and women's studies extend library holdings related to French language and literature. Perkins Library, at Duke University, also has extensive collections of these materials. Users can therefore expect to find most of the resources they need in the area, including 65 percent of the journals indexed in the annual Bibliographie d'histoire littéraire française. The Center for Research Libraries [CRL] supplements local library holdings with additional microform collections of French literature, notably French Books before 1601. CRL also has foreign dissertations and government publications, books and periodicals in French, French newspapers, and large microform sets (especially for foreign area studies). UNC faculty and students can request unlimited amounts of materials from CRL via the web and keep them indefinitely, or until another person needs them. For further information, please consult the West European Bibliographer.