Simpson Library: Modern Languages and Literatures: Items in Other Languages

Finding Books & Articles

Most of our books are in English, but we have plenty of books in other languages, too. Here's how to find these books using the library catalog.

Starting at the Simpson Library home page, click on the Catalog tab. Then, click "Advanced Search."
On the Advanced Search page, look for the drop-down menu labeled "Language." Choose a language from the menu.
Enter your search terms into the boxes, and click "Search."

The library catalog lists each book's title and author in the book's own language, but it lists the book's subjects in English. Therefore, in order to search all the information we have, you'll need to search in both languages.

For example, to find books about turtles in Spanish, you should search for both "turtles" and "tortugas." Do this as two separate searches, one for each term. For example, first you'd search for "turtles" (limited to Spanish), and examine the results. Then, you'd go back and search for "tortugas" (again, limited to Spanish).

Most of the UMW databases focus on English-language content, but UMW does have a few databases that focus on content in other languages.

French:

Vente et Gestion (French Business Source) This link opens in a new window

Spanish:

Fuente Academica This link opens in a new window
MedicLatina This link opens in a new window
Salud en Espanol This link opens in a new window

Finding Videos

Simpson Library's video collection includes not only our DVD collection, but also databases that provide streaming videos online. Follow these steps to find videos in your chosen language:

Starting at the Simpson Library home page, click on the Catalog tab. Then, click "Advanced Search."
On the Advanced Search page, choose "Audio Visual" from the Material Type menu, and choose your language from the Language menu.
Enter your search terms in the boxes, and then click Search. Note that you may want to enter search terms in both English and your target language.

Online videos in other languages are available through the library's streaming video databases:

Academic Video Online (AVON) This link opens in a new window
Provides streaming access to over 72,000 videos spanning a wide range of subject areas including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more. Most films on the Alexander Street Press platform have closed captioning and transcripts. A small, but growing, number of films have audio description.
Docuseek This link opens in a new window
Streaming documentary films on a variety of subjects, including education, healthcare, science and technology, and critical thinking. Most films on the Docuseek platform have closed captioning.
Films on Demand Master Academic This link opens in a new window
Streaming video collection of over 30,000 titles. Most films on the Infobase platform have closed captioning and transcripts. A small, but growing, number of films have audio description.
Kanopy This link opens in a new window
Streaming video collection with over 20,000 films from leading producers such as Criterion Collection, The Great Courses, New Day Films, HBO, California Newsreel, PBS, BBC, and First Run Features. Kanopy makes it easy to share films, create clips, and embed videos. Most films on the Kanopy platform have closed captioning and transcripts. Please use your UMW email address when requesting access to a film not currently in our collection. It is also helpful to include the course number the film will support.

You can also find videos in other languages for free on the Internet. Try the sites listed on the Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish pages of this guide.

If you're looking for videos in some other language, try Google Videos. It searches millions of sites, including YouTube, and its Advanced Search page has a Language menu that you can choose from.