FREN 492 Research and Discussion
Amadou Fofana, Professor

1. Library Catalogs

Willamette University Libraries Catalog

Orbis Cascade Alliance Summit catalog of academic libraries in Oregon and Washington

Worldcat search engine for library catalogs all over the world

Gallica is a platfom Bibliothèque nationale de France that provides access to public domain and copyrighted digital material.

2. Major Research Databases

Oxford Reference Online: 100 well-known and trusted dictionaries and reference books combined into a single cross-searchable web database.

Literature Resource Center: Provides access to biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every age and literary discipline.

Literary Index: An online index of reference books series that includes Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism.

Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism: Offers succinct, focused articles that provide an overview of literary theory from a twentieth-century Western perspective.

MLA International Bibliography. Indexes critical material on the modern languages, literature, linguistics, and folklore.

Project Muse: Provides online access to the full text of over 300 journals in the disciplines of literary studies, classics, history, philosophy, and more.

JSTOR: Provides access to the complete back files of more than 624 cross-disciplinary academic journals in digital format, some of which date from the 1800s.

ARTFL: Provides access to nearly 2000 texts, ranging from classic works of French literature to various kinds of non-fiction prose and technical writing. Covers the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with a smaller selection of seventeenth century texts as well as some medieval and Renaissance texts.

Iter: Provides a bibliography of close to 550,000 records for articles, essays, books, and reviews of great use to scholars interested in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700).

Biography and Genealogy Master Index: Excellent starting place for biographical searches. It indexes other biographical indexes, Who's Who books, and biographical encyclopedias.

CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online): Provides indexing and full text for sources covering theory and research on international affairs.

Constitutions of Dependencies and Territories: Consists of the most complete and up-to-date expert English translations of the constitutions of territories and dependencies and relevant federal constitutional provisions that define the relationship between the state and dependencies and territories.

Constitutions of the Countries of the World: Contains the full text for the constitutions of 187 countries.

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., is a monumental work of 29 volumes and the definitive music reference source. The electronic version is Grove Music Online.

Historical Abstracts: Provides access to international scholarly literature on the history of the world, excluding the United States and Canada, from 1450 to the present.

The Music Index: Indexes over 640 international music periodicals offering a wealth of historiographic, ethnographic, and musicological data. Includes links to full-text articles in JSTOR database.

Sociological Abstracts: Provides citations to articles in over 3000 journals covering sociology, social work and other social sciences.

3. Other Resources

How to Write a Thesis Statement

French Studies Web: provides annotated links to scholarly web resources and includes sites of particular interest to librarians specializing in Western Europe. It does not strive for exhaustiveness. Where possible, links to high-quality, scholarly meta-sites are given.

Persee: portail de revues scientifiques en sciences humaines et sociales. Established by the French Ministry of State Education, Higher Education and Research, this website contains back collections of 15 scholarly periodicals.

Editions Tintamarre: Catalogue of Francophone literary works from Louisiana.

Primary Sources and Image Databases:

ArtStor: Provides a broad and deep general collection of images of world art and architecture, as well as special collections including Native American, Asian, American and European art.

Early English Books Online: Provides indexing, citations and full text of Early English publications from 1475 to 1800. Included are texts covering English literature, languages, music, religion, science, travel and exploration and politics. Includes books written in French but published in England.

Evans Digital Edition: The definitive resource for information about every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America. Includes books and other materials written in French.

Grove Dictionary of Art is the only comprehensive art reference work in the world. It covers all the visual arts from prehistory to the 1990's in 34 volumes.

Image of Paris, France Notre Dame by Rob and Donna Ritchie, courtesy of Pics4Learning

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