Guidance for Finding Foreign-Language Materials in the Harvard Libraries

Overview:

https://guides.library.harvard.edu/literature/foreignlanguageliteratures (linked from https://guides.library.harvard.edu/literature)

Contact a librarian:

https://ask.library.harvard.edu/.

To focus your HOLLIS results to items in a specific language:

1. Use the “Language” filter after you search to refine down to a specific language (usually on the right side of the page)
2. Go to Advanced Search and select a language from the “Language” drop-down before you search
3. Use the Code: MARC Language option

• Use filters to narrow further, e.g. Resource Type: film/video

Find language-learning materials (such as textbooks):

1. In HOLLIS (options may be limited)

Use the “subject” field in HOLLIS Advanced Search and add:

• [name of language]

AND

(choose one of the following subject terms)

• “Study and teaching”
• Grammar
• Textbooks
• “Conversation and phrase books”
• Dictionaries

2. In nearby public libraries (options often more extensive)

Cambridge Public Library and Boston Public Library may offer more sources of language-learning materials. Try the same searches outlined above in their catalogs: Minuteman Catalog (includes Cambridge Public Library); Boston Public Library catalog.

3. In BorrowDirect and WorldCat (for less common languages)

If working in a less common language, you will need to search farther afield:

• Borrow Direct catalog (searches are more time-consuming, but may yield more results)
• Worldcat.org (uses the same subject headings as HOLLIS; you may request items via interlibrary loan)

Find fiction and films in HOLLIS:

HOLLIS Advanced Search

• Keywords anywhere = fiction OR novels; limit results by language
• Example: fiction OR novels in Armenian
• SUBJECT = “Juvenile literature”; limit results by language
  • Example: “juvenile literature” in Burmese
• For films:
  • Method 1: Form/genre = “[name of language] language films”
    • Example: “Italian language films”
  • Method 2: Keywords anywhere = [name of language]; Resource type = video/film; Language = [your language]
    • Example: Italian [video/film; in Italian]

Explore databases of foreign-language texts, streaming media, and more:

Tips for searching databases.hollis.harvard.edu

• Don’t rely solely on the language filter---this can be unreliable!
• Think in languages, but also regions, language families, etc.:
  • French OR France OR Francophone
  • “East Asian” OR Pacific
  • Spanish OR Iberian OR “Latin American” OR Latino OR Chicano
  • Slavic
• Add terms that describe the types of materials you’d like to find, e.g. (Chinese OR China) AND newspapers
  • Newspapers
  • Film
  • Books

Find entire collections:

On library.harvard.edu, try one or two simple search terms for a language, country, region, or culture to learn more about particular areas of focus in the library’s holdings as well as the experts who curate them.