Finding items in languages other than English

The Library holds a vast collection of dictionaries for many languages. Many of these are on the open access shelves in the 400- 499 subject number range.

Check the catalogue to find dictionaries for specific languages. Use the term dictionaries and the required language. For example Dictionaries Urdu or Dictionaries Faroese or Dictionaries Xhosa. The same method can be used for phrase books.  For example Phrase books Tagalog or Phrase books Nepali.

Grammar

To find books on grammar for a specific language, use the keyword grammar with the name of the language. For example Japanese grammar; Spanish grammar.

Learning a language

To find books and audio on learning a language there a number of searches you can do. If you use the terms textbooks and the required language - for example Japanese textbooks  or Portuguese textbooks you will return a list of textbooks of that language. You can also search for the language of interest and include the term study and teaching, for example German study and teaching; Indonesian study and teaching. These terms can be used as keywords, but for a more specific search choose Subject from the dropdown search scope box in advanced search.

There are a number of different terms and subject headings that can be used to locate resources on learning other languages.

For example here are some of the subject headings for locating items to assist with learning French:

• French language -- Study and teaching 
• French language -- Conversation and phrase books -- English
• French language -- Spoken French
• French language -- Sound recordings for English speakers
• French language -- Textbooks for foreign speakers -- English

To do a broader search that includes all these subject headings, in Advanced search do a subject search for the name of a language. This will be most useful for lower profile languages.

For example:

• Nepali language
• Faroese language

For widely spoken languages we may have significant resources. One way to narrow your search is to include terms used in French language subject heading examples above. Use the contains option rather than is (exact).

For example:

• Chinese language textbooks
• German language spoken
• Greek language study
• Japanese language conversation 

If you are learning a new language, you may be interested in taking a look at some of the other language books in our children’s collection. To see what we hold, perform an advanced catalogue search:

1. Select Books from the Search scope dropdown menu
2. Select Language note and type in the preferred language (e.g. ‘French’)
3. After performing the search, limit results to Pauline Gandel Children's Quarter under Reading Room
4. Then select your preferred language under Language

Below is a screenshot of an advanced catalogue search for children’s books in French. 

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