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Locating Foreign Language Materials

The Carl B. Ylvisaker Library holds well over 4,000 items in languages other than English. Unfortunately, due to the diversity of these materials, searching for them is an inexact science. If you want to find things written in another language, try the following research strategies or stop by the Reference Desk and visit with a librarian!

Books

1. Use the "Advanced Searches" feature in MnPALS. One easy way to locate items in another language is to do an advanced search in the Library's catalog. Type in your search term(s) and scroll down the screen until you see an option for limiting your searches "by language."

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2. Use a "hedge." The following are examples of search term hedges that you can use in our catalog.

This is only ONE way to get a partial listing of books in these foreign languages.

French french* OR franc*
German germa* OR deutsch*
Russian russ* OR soviet* OR siberia*
Spanish span* OR espan* OR mexi* OR latin* OR hispan*
Italian ital* OR rome OR roma
Japanese japan* OR nippon* OR nihon*
Chinese china OR chinese OR chinas OR taiwan* OR beijing

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3. Try a subject heading search. These searches use a controlled vocabulary based on the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Especially useful subject headings include:

  • [insert language] language readers
  • [insert language] language materials
  • [insert language] literature
  • [author's name] (e.g., "Allende, Isabel," "Bernanos, Georges," "Barlach, Ernst," etc.

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4. Browse by call number. You can browse the call number areas for the following national literatures and language studies in the hopes that there will be some books in the appropriate foreign languages.

  • Please note that this is still an incomplete method for finding foreign language items.
  • Each of these call numbers are approximate.
  • Books with these numbers are found on 3rd floor of Ylvisaker Library. 
Country LC Class Numbers
Language Study Literature
France PC 2073 PQ 139, PQ 1109
Germany PF PT 105
Italy PC 1111 PQ 4004
Spain PC 4073 PQ 6004
Mexico   PQ 7106
Japan PL 523 PL 726
China PL 1071 PL 2253
Russia PG 2073 PG 2117
Korea PL 918 PL 894
Viet Nam PL 4373 PL 4378

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Journals, Magazines & Newspapers

Here are a few foreign language periodicals and newspapers found in the Carl B. Ylvisaker Library.

Sinorama [Chinese] Edda; Nordisk Tidsskrift for Litteraturforskning [Norwegian]
Bunte [German] Heimen [Norwegian]
Der Spiegel [German] Samtiden [Norwegian]
Suddeutsche Zeitung [German] Vinduet [Norwegian]
Le Francais dans le Monde [French] Cambio 16 [Spanish]
Litterature [French] Estreno [Spanish]
Le Monde [French] Revista de Estudios Hispanicos [Spanish]
Le Nouvel Observateur [French] Selecciones del Reader's Digest [Spanish]

To locate journal, magazine and news articles in different languages, try searching one of these databases:

Lexis Nexis: Academic Check the box "Major World Publications (non-English)."

Ethnic NewsWatch (Español): A comprehensive full text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native presses of the United States and Canada. (Search interface is in Spanish.)

Informe! (Español): This Spanish database includes scholarly and news sources. Most articles are available in full-text.

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Reference Sources about Countries and Cultures

Countries and Their Cultures
REFERENCE GN 307 .C68 2001

CultureGrams
REFERENCE GT 150 .C859

Encyclopedia of Food and Culture
REFERENCE GT 2850 .E53 2003

Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities
REFERENCE GN 495.4 .E5396 2005

Encyclopedia of World Cultures
REFERENCE GN307.E53

The Europa World Year Book
REFERENCE JN 1 .E85

The Indigenous World, 2004
REFERENCE GN 380 .I53 2004

The World Factbook
REFERENCE G 122 .U56

Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life
REFERENCE GN 333 .W67 1998

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