Finding items in languages other than English

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We are here to help you find information and use the Library. You can Ask A Librarian if you have any questions.

Our Library has resources in a range of languages. Some of these can be found on the shelf, however most are in storage and need to be ordered through the catalogue.

As we are a research and reference library you will find our collection is set up a bit differently to your local library in that:

• you cannot borrow books from our collection. They are just for use within the library.
• our books are organised by subject rather than language
• our collection is mainly non-fiction. We have some fiction but a larger range is likely to be held by your local library. See the Other libraries box on the right side of this page for a list of languages held by different public libraries.

This guide will show you how to:

• find books and newspapers on our shelves in languages other than English
• search our collection more broadly to find books, newspapers and journals in languages other than English
• find resources to help you in learning a language other than English, including language dictionaries. 

State Library Victoria membership

You will need a State Library Victoria membership to order collection items from storage and access many of the online resources listed in this guide. This is free and you can join online. There is no membership card. You will receive a member number.

Accessing full-text from links on this guide

Many links on this guide are to the online resources our Library subscribes to. When you click on such links you will be asked to enter your member number or email address, and your password. 

If you have not yet made a password for your account, you can follow the links to create one now. If you are not a member yet you can follow the link to sign up.

Here are some quick searches for books in other languages.

Find on shelf means those items are in our open access reading rooms:

• Chinese
  • find on shelf
• Korean
  • find on shelf
• Italian
  • find on shelf
• Greek
  • find on shelf
• Vietnamese
  • find on shelf
• Arabic
  • find on shelf
• Indonesian
  • find on shelf
• Hindi
  • find on shelf
• Persian
  • find on shelf

You can change the language from the search to find other languages.

Choose your preferred language from the dropdown ↓ to translate this guide:

• Alternatively, you can go to Google translate, click on 'websites', paste in this guide's address and choose your preferred language
   
• The State Library of NSW also offers a helpful glossary which translates words used by libraries into many different languages.

The State Library is different from other libraries in many ways. One big difference is that our print books can only be read within the Library and cannot be borrowed. We are here to help you though, if you want to find out where you can borrow a book in another language.

Many public libraries in Victoria have books and other items in community languages that you can borrow for free. You can join any Victorian public library if you live in Victoria. You can use these resources to find out which public libraries have books and other items in your community language of interest.

1. Visit the Public Libraries Victoria webpage, Free and online.
2. Expand the Community languages dropdown menu.
3. Choose your language of interest to see a list of libraries where those language items are available.

You can also check this summary table instead to find out which libraries you can visit to borrow other language books:

Sourced from: State of Victoria Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions. (2021). Directory of public library services in Victoria 2021 (PDF). 

Opening the Multilingual Archive of Australia (OMAA) brings together historical materials from national and international collections in languages other than English. Use OMAA to search for different types of materials across multiple collections, including our State Library collection.