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Finding items in languages other than English

How to find books in languages other then English

Finding books in other languages on our library catalogue

There is a lot more to our collection than what you can find on the shelves. To do a broader search of the items we hold perform an advanced catalogue search:

  1. Search by topic, title or author (e.g. Chinese history)
  2. On the second line of your search, choose in Language note from the dropdown menu and type in the preferred language (e.g. Chinese)
  3. After performing the search, limit results to your preferred language under Language (e.g. Chinese)

Below is a screenshot of a catalogue search for ‘Chinese history’ in Chinese:

Screenshot of catalogue search and results for Chinese history books in Chinese

 

 

Finding newspapers in languages other than English

To find newspapers that are available on the shelf, visit the Get started page and see the section on Finding newspapers in other languages on the shelf.

PressReader


Screenshot of PressReader homepage showing 'languages' option.Select a language from the top left of the screen to see what languages and titles are available.

Sometimes, if a lot of people are using PressReader, you may not be able to get access. If this happens, wait a few minutes and try again.

 

Catalogue

Some library user tags have been added to catalogue records to allow newspapers in other languages to be found more easily. You can click on any of the user tags listed below to take you to the catalogue results:

Some User Tags for foreign language newspapers are:

For more information, visit the rest of the world section of the how to find newspapers research guide.

Finding journals in languages other than English

You can do a broad search for any journals or magazines we hold in other languages. We call these periodicals.

To find journals or magazines in your preferred language, perform an advanced catalogue search:

  1. Select in Subject from the first dropdown menu and type in ‘periodicals’
  2. After performing the search, limit results to journals under Resource type
  3. Then limit results to preferred language under Language

Below is a screenshot of an advanced catalogue search for journals and magazines in Italian. 

Screenshot of catalogue search and results for journals in Italian

Other libraries

Sourced from: State of Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. (2020). Directory of public library services in Victoria 2020 (PDF). 

Quick searches

Here are some quick searches for books in other languages.

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

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

Translation

  • To translate this guide into another language, just go to Google translate, 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