French Language and Literature 

1. Important Library Resources

• Ask a Librarian Services -- including email, IM, text, and phone reference
• Interlibrary Loan
• NYU's French Literature Subject Guide
• Other NYU Subject Web Pages
• NYU Libraries Subject Librarians

Example Paper Topic: French Language in Canada

2. Break Your Topic Down into its Constituent Parts -- Identify Key Concepts and Synonyms:

• Concept map:
  • French Language: dialect, sociolect, idolect, creole, bilingual, French Canadian, Quebec French, Francophone...
  • Canada: canadian, quebec, Quebecois, Quebecer, ethnicity, French, Canadien,French Canadian...
  • History: 17th, 1600's, descent ...
  • other concepts as research progresses (e.g., key authors in the field; key historical events or figures in the field, relevant sub-domains)

3. Become More Familiar with your Topic; Broaden Your Concept Map:

• Wikipedia or other web resource (with all appropriate caveats re. authority) -- Note "see also" references.
  
  
• For Literature:
  • The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism. Groden, Kreisworth, Szeman eds. Johns Hopkins U. Press.
  • New Oxford Companion to Literature in French Peter France, ed. Oxford University Press.
  • Note bibliographic suggestions in these reference works.
• Find a dictionary, encyclopedia, or other reference work on your topic: Bobcat, NYU Libraries' Catalog
  
  
  • If you are looking for --> Use this Search term in BobCat
  • Biographical information --> biography
  • Bibliographical information --> bibliography
  • Dictionary --> dictionary
    
    
  • Sample searches in Bobcat:
    • Bibliography about the French language: bibliography french
    • Biographical information about a person: biography [name]
    • History of the French language in Canada: canada french language history

4. Discovering Secondary Sources: Articles

• NYU's Subscription Databases: By Title or By Subject
  
  
• Modern Language Association International Bibliography of Books and Articles
  
  • Keyword searching using "AND" between words
  • example: french and language and canada (see first hit for better search terms, NYU button--> full text, etc.)
• Francis -- multilingual and multidisciplinary bibliographic database covering Humanities, Social Sciences, etc.
  
  
• Historical Abstracts -- world history, covering periodicals dating back to 1954 (covers world history from 1450-present; US and Canada from prehistory to present)
  
  
• Digital Dissertations, 1861-present (many available for free download)
  
  
• Other Databases of Interest
  • Film Literature Index
  • Sociological Abstracts
  • Lexis Nexis: to search within a particular periodical, click on "Sources" tab (top left) then type your news source into the "Find a Source" search box (top right). In the results list check off the source you want to search (or click "I" for info on what is available), then click on the "OK-Continue" button (middle right). Type your search terms in the center box.

Jennifer Vinopal, vinopal@nyu.edu
Librarian for Digital Scholarship Initiatives