French Language Sources

Search Tips
  • Brainstorm keywords for your topic in both French and English (subject terms in some databases are English).
  • Start specific, but be prepared to broaden your research focus and search terms.
  • Keep it simple, and don鈥檛 combine too many ideas.
  • Where the option exists, limit the language to French/Fran莽ais.
  • Limit to 鈥淔ull Text鈥� or 鈥淭exte int茅gral seulement鈥�; but expect that some items may still not be accessible.

Planificateur de recherche / Research Planner
Check for more general research and citation tips.

Article Databases
Provides full text access to almost hundreds of thousands of eBooks, and records for almost 60,000 print books in our General Collection.听Limits:听Language > French.
Cairn provides full-text access to scholarly journals, popular magazines and听听published in French. Among its holdings are the titles听Cerveau & Psycho,听Les Grands Dossiers des Sciences Humaines,听Pour la Science, and听Sciences Humaines. The Cairn collection is divided into three subdomains:听听听
Created by the Universit茅 de Montr茅al, Universit茅 Laval and Universit茅 du Qu茅bec 脿 Montr茅al, 脡谤耻诲颈迟 is the leading provider of Francophone and Canadian peer-reviewed journals in North America.
听(open access) A comprehensive electronic infrastructure for academic communication in the humanities and social sciences. It combines four platforms dedicated to books, journals, research blogs, and academic announcements respectively. A high proportion of the content is published in French and a search can be limited to 鈥渙nly open access documents.鈥�
听(open access) Established by France鈥檚 Minist猫re de l鈥櫭ヾucation nationale, 笔别谤蝉茅别 provides full text access to the back files of French journals in the social and human sciences.
Provides full text of French language business journals serving both academic and professional researchers, with topics such as accounting & tax, administration, industry & manufacturing, marketing, logistics, technology and others.
The BAnQ鈥檚听听can be accessed remotely by any Quebec resident who听听to the library鈥檚 remote services. The collection includes several English- and French-language periodical databases that the 蘑菇视频 Library does not subscribe to.
Books/eBooks
Browse a list of French language titles available in our General Collection.
Use Discovery to search for print books in the听.听Limits:听Language > French; Databases being searched鈥�: Dawson Library Catalogue.
This section of the Cairn database provides full-text access to more than 14,000 French-language e-books, on subjects ranging across the social sciences.
Contains almost 15,000 titles from more than 60 of Canada鈥檚 leading publishers; and more than 30,000 publications by Canadian public policy institutes, government agencies, advocacy groups, think-tanks, university research centres and other public interest groups.听Limits:听Document Language (from search field drop-down) > French
Contains 125,000 multidisciplinary titles representing a broad range of academic subject matter, with some content in French.
Films (DVD & Streaming)
Lists all of the films with French language soundtracks or subtitles in the Library鈥檚 film collection.
Contains over 26,000 films, including award-winning documentaries, rare titles, independent and classic films, and world cinema, from producers such as Criterion, the Media Education Foundation, The Great Courses, New Day Films, California Newsreel, Kino Lorber, and PBS. Browse the collection by subject and discipline, or search for a specific title.听Please use only for academic purposes, as each 鈥淧lay鈥� incurs fees
Reference Sources
This is the electronic, online version of a large multi-volume French-language encyclopedia.
The French edition of a national encyclopedia produced by, for, and about the people of Canada, covering its events, culture, history, peoples, and landscape.
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography/Dictionnaire biographique du Canada (DCB/DBC) features over 9,000 biographies of individuals from diverse backgrounds and regions across Canada. These entries are prepared by contributors with subject-matter expertise, drawing on primary sources, and undergoing a thorough review process to support accuracy and clarity. New biographies are published weekly in both English and French, along with occasional updates or corrections to existing entries.
A large terminology database that provides access to millions of terms in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. It includes terminology, abbreviations, definitions, and usage examples across a wide range of specialized fields.
Maintained by the Office qu茅b茅cois de la langue fran莽aise (OQLF), this tools allows users to search both the Grand dictionnaire terminologique, for definitions and translations of words across numerous domains, as well as the Banque de d茅pannage linguistique, for information on French grammar, orthography (spelling), syntax, and usage.
News & Websites
Newspaper Websites Search the websites of听,听,听,听听and听.
Websites from Quebec, Canada & France Search for information from websites in Quebec (.qc.ca), Canada (.ca) and France (.fr), and from the Newspaper Websites above.


Last Modified: August 6, 2026