Bibliographic databases are a powerful tool for finding scholarly literature, like journal articles, in your subject area. They are useful when you want to start exploring beyond your reading list or are researching a new topic. Experts in your subject area select key content to be included in databases, so you can be confident of its quality. Some databases will have full-text access, which means you can read the whole item (like an article or book chapter) on the database. Other databases offer 'indexing' or 'abstracting' services, which means they give an overview of the item, like title, author, year of publication and a summary of the research.
Google will only take you so far - in particular it cannot show you areas of the web which are not freely available including the many specialist resources purchased by the library. Subject portals contain links to all sorts of relevant online resources and they have usually been checked to make sure that they are trustworthy (however you should do your own checks). Here are some subject portals for French studies
Below you will find a few popular databases used for the study of French. It is recommended that you engage with databases relevant to your subject so that you become familiar with the different features offered. Such features include:
In addition to Oxford's subscription databases, there are a number of free online resources to support the study of French, many of which are listed in Databases A-Z (look for the icon).
The International Medieval Bibliography comprises records deriving from articles published in periodicals (journals) and in miscellany volumes (conference proceedings, collected essays, Festschriften and exhibition catalogues) published world-wide.
All subjects relating to the Middle Ages are included, within the date range 300-1500 AD. Geographical areas covered are Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Take a look at the tutorials provided below to find out how to get the best results when searching the MLA Bibliography.
You can always consult the Help section within the MLA Bibliography for more search tips.
You can browse all databases relevant for French studies on Databases A-Z:
If there is an eresource useful to your work that Oxford does not subscribe to, you can make a recommendation by completing the form below (Single-Sign On required).