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Non-English Resources in UK Libraries

Guide to finding information resources in languages other than English.

About Library Catalogs

Catalogs are comprehensive lists of what a library owns. Most catalogs use search tools that allow one to limit results to exactly what they are looking for. One can search by author, title, subject, and keyword, and limit results by year, format, and language.  

Here is a quick reference for different catalogs you might utilize in your research: 

  • InfoKat Discovery provides access to materials owned by the University of Kentucky and that are locally available.
  • WorldCat is the world's largest catalog and it displays resources from libraries all around the world. You can borrow the books from these libraries by using Interibrary Loan.
  • Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is a consortium of member institutions that provides access to rich scholarly content. Among CRLs many collections you will find non-English newspapers and dissertations. CRL materials can be acquired on Interlibrary Loan.

Searching in Catalogs for Non-English Resources

If you know the book or journal you are looking for, simply search for it by title in the main search bar of the library catalog. If you want to browse books and journals in non-English languages, there are a few ways to do that:

  1. On the Advanced Search page of InfoKat, enter a question mark (?) into the first search box, and then select a language from the drop-down menu to the right, as shown in the image below:

  1. Search by keyword in English (e.g. diabetes), and then, on the results page, limit to a specific language by scrolling down and selecting a language, as shown in the image below:

 

Modern & Classical Languages Librarian

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Taylor Leigh
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