French Studies: Selected Web Resources

Facts and Figures (CIA World Factbook)

• France

Full-Text Resources

• ARTFL , an online collection of 1,800 searchable French literary and historical texts.
• Gallica, "la bibliothèque numérique de la BNF," with ca. 70,000 titles available to date and growing. Contains the full text of the following periodicals: Annuaire Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de France, 1834-1899; Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes, 1839-1899; Bulletin de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris, 1859-1919; Journal de la Société des Américanistes, 1896-1904; L'Année Sociologique, 1896-1912; L'Européen, Journal de Morale et de Philosophie, 1838; L'Homme nouveau, 1833; L'Organisateur, 1829-1831; Le Devenir social, 1895-1898; Revue des Deux-Mondes, 1829-1900; Revue des Questions historiques, 1866-1906; Revue historique, 1876-1910.
• Biblionet, a full-text site created by Bibliopolis and Radio France. "L'objectif initial de Biblionet est de porter sur le web une partie du patrimoine littéraire francophone, avec des textes les plus fiables possible, et de mettre gratuitement ces textes à disposition d'un public le plus large possible."
• Online Textual Databases (WESSWeb)
• Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism
• Presse francophone -- an excellent page linking to newspapers and magazines (from Swarthmore College's ClicNet)
• Shortcuts to Le Monde, Libération, L'Express, Le Nouvel Observateur, and La Quinzaine en Ligne (indexes and selected articles)
• Les News : le Quotidien des technologies de l'information
• Comprehensive Backfiles of important journals in the humanities, including Renaissance Quarterly and Speculum (JSTOR Project)
• Current issues of journals published by Johns Hopkins University Press, such as Diacritics, Eighteenth-Century Life, Literature & Medicine, Modernism/Modernity, MLN, Wide Angle (Project Muse

Comprehensive Web sites in French studies

• L'Espace Culturel, a well-designed and information-rich resource provided by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the following rubrics: Bibliothèque [i.e., literature], Musique, Cinéma, Archéologie, and Ressources (with a link to Le Tour de France for information on government, society, the press, the economy and education - in French or English)
• ClicNet, a superb site maintained by Carole Netter (Swarthmore College), including Etudes homosexuelles and Etudes féministes, among its numerous pages.
• French Studies Web (WESS), organized into broad categories (e.g., Reference Shelf, Newspapers) as well as specific discipline areas (e.g., Art, Business, Education, Literature & Culture, Women's Studies) (a major resource coordinated by Jennifer Vinopal, NYU)
• BIBelec - Bibliothèque Electronique des Etudiants - "la première bibliothèque virtuelle réalisée par des étudiants et pour les étudiants"

Useful library/archival catalogs online

• French National Bibliography. This publication describes books (50,000 new titles annually) and serials (5,000 a year) published or distributed in France and received by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France through legal deposit.
• BN-OPALE PLUS, the catalog of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. (See Bibliothèque Nationale de France for links to other BN resources.)
• CCFR/Catalogue Collectif de France, a rapidly growing database, intended to eventually include a bibliographic record for nearly every book ever published in France. Presently contains over 250 "fonds anciens catalogs" from 55 French libraries (large municipal libraries as well as specialized collections).
• Centre d'accueil et de recherche des Archives nationales (CARAN)
• Gabriel: The Gateway to Europe's National Libraries from Austria to Vatican City
• Bibliothèque nationale du Canada
• Archives nationales du Canada
• Archives in the World (UNESCO)
• Repositories of Primary Sources (maintained by U of Idaho Library)

Useful Indexes -- Penn Only

• Francis, French-produced, strong in the humanities, coverage from 1984 on
• MLA International Bibliography, U.S.-produced index to literary scholarship, coverage from 1963 on
• Arts & Humanities Citation Index. Find out who's quoting whom. Coverage from 1988
• More indexes

La Francophonie

• Annuaire des archives et des bibliothèques nationales, des bibliothèques parlementaires et des centres nationaux d'information scientifique et technique de la Francophonie -- an extensive directory, with address, phone and fax numbers.
• Littérature francophone virtuelle (ClicNet)
• Dictionnaire des identités culturelles de la francophonie
• Canadiana, "la page des ressources canadiennes."
• Centre de documentation et de recherches sur les littératures romandes (Switzerland)
• Afrique francophone (maintained at CUNY)
• Research Guide for the Study of Francophone Literature (Jennifer Vinopal, NYU)
• Littérature québécoise

Reference Shelf

• La nouvelle encyclopédie Atlas - a useful resource, but it requires the first-time user to fill out a rather intrusive questionnaire that puts one on their mailing list
• Dictionnaire des synonymes -- 52,000 entries and 403,000 synonyms
• TheseNet - a listing of French doctoral dissertations from 1972 with abstracts. See the link to "Aide" for details on searching, content, etc.
• Les Pages blanches -- white pages for France
• Les Pages jaunes -- yellow pages for France
• Infobel -- Belgian phone directory
• Égide -- lists sources for grants and study opportunities in France
• To order books from France see, for example, Le Furet du Nord, Alibabook (the preferred choice of Livreshebdo in their March 19, 1999 survey of nine libraires en ligne), or Lavoisier, as well as the excellent listing provided by FYI France. (The official French books-in-print online, Electre, is available only by subscription.) For antiquarian books see Chapitre.com. See also Les librairies en ligne for an excellent compilation of Web-accessible book services.
• Currency exchange rates
• Paris and Pariscope
• French postal codes
• MLA Job Information List
• "Career Network" from the Chronicle of Higher Education
• "Site multilingual du Academic Computing Facility à New York University" -- a rich site with a focus on French-language resources related to computing for academics, including a section "French Language Learning Resouces"
• Ministère de l'Education Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie" -- on the French educational system, with many informative links to universities and other institutions devoted to research and/or teaching
• Cours de bibliographie générale - a useful site for learning about French bibliographic resources, e.g., how to find periodical articles on a particular subject.

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