Clearinghouse of Professional Information

French Services Resources

This section includes links to resources on the provision of user services, to libraries serving a French language client base. Clearinghouse resources  have been especially developed in the areas of ready reference, collection development resources, literature sources and technical services.

SOLS offers the services of a Consultant through the SOLS Guidelines Group. Consulting and advice on all aspects of French language services in public libraries is assigned to Louise Godbout-Legault, who is available for advice by telephone or in person. She can also be reached by email at

SOLS also provides translated versions of most of its published documents, a list of which can be found at Publications en français du SBOS.

OLS - North offer general consulting service on French Language Services in Libraries. The OLS – North website is bilingual. Translated versions of most of OLS-North’s published documents are available in the documents section of our website. In addition, OLS-North has bilingual staff available in most areas of the organization. For assistance with French Language services contact Steven Kraus by phone or e-mail at

Topics include

General Resources | About Users of  French resources  | Audio Books | Best Sellers  | Book Clubs | Book Fairs |  Book Lists | Cataloguing Sources | Collection Development Tools | Linguistic Tools | Links to Francophone Community | Readers' Advisory | Ready Reference | Suppliers | Systems

	indicates an item written by SOLS staff		indicates an item written by OLS-North staff
Clicking on certain topics may open a new window, if the link leads to a topic included in another Clearinghouse page.

General Resources

Portals to French resources

• How to Search For French Bibliographic Records in INFO/VDX  A Help Desk Tip 

• Canadian Parents for French Canadian Parents for French  (CPF) operates national and provincial websites that provide answers to frequently asked questions on FSL education. It is a source of the latest information and research on French-second-language education.  Click on the link for Ontario and it will give you links to bilingual performers, bookstores, educational resources
• Centre global d'information.  A very complete list of websites corresponding to the Clearinghouse's Ready  Reference Resources site.
• Le Fouineux This means the browser. If you need a starting off point for your French users, this is it!  It Includes an amazing selection of linguistic tools and search engines
• French studies: Resources for students, scholars, and general readers (ALA/Association of Research and College Libraries) An article in C&RL News, June 2007, Vol. 68, No. 6 by Kristin W. Andrews.  The resources in this article are intended for students, researchers, librarians, and general readers who have some knowledge of French. They are organized by type of resource, from general to specific. Discussion lists and professional organizations are located at the end of the article for further information.
• Zof.ca Zone francophone (Fédération culturelle canadienne-française) Portal site to the arts and culture scene in French Canada. Hundreds of links to artist, editors or events.

About users of French resources

• The Francophone Community in Ontario. Office of Francophone Affairs
• Francophones in Ontario - Regional Characteristics Office of Francophone Affairs
• Francophones in Ontario – Statistical Profiles – 2005 Edition Office of Francophone Affairs
• French as a Second Language. Ontario Ministry of Education Curriculum
• French Immersion 30 Years Later (Stats Can) Written in 2004
• The French Language Service Act (Office of Francophone Affairs) 

Best Sellers Lists

• Archambault.ca : Best sellers - books
• Archambault.ca : Best sellers - Music
• Archambault.ca : Best sellers – Videos
• Archambault. ca : Lists of titles for a basic collection on four types of books: Littérature québécoise: Romans policiers; bédé et Littérature de jeunesse. 
• Archambault.ca : Top teléchargement mp3 or uma
• Centre Fora: Le coin de la famille -  In this section, if you scroll down this page,  you will find a list of learning tools such as books, videos and activity kits all linked to family literacy. You may search alphabetically or make a search by specific category like teens, parenting, albums and babies, kits etc. you may also search by author, ISBN number or keywords.
• Prologue Best sellers for adults and children  : Meilleurs vendeurs
• Prologue : Les Incontournables / Best of children’s books

Book Clubs

Le BouquiNet   Book Club selections of the last quarter.

Book Fairs

• Salon du Livre de Montréal. In November
• Salon du Livre de l'Outaouais. In March, in Ottawa/Gatineau
• Salon du Livre de Toronto. In October

Book Lists

• BQ Bibliothèque québécoise. (Sponsored by Heritage Canada) Over 200 titles painting a panorama of Québec literature "in all its strength and diversity". Novels, short stories, history and social sciences. Lists pocket books of good quality and reasonable prices.  
• Bibliographies (Services documentaires multimédia)    Excellent lists of books by genres or type of literature, children's literature or sci-fi, crime etc.
• Bibliom@nes (Services documentaires multimédia) New books sorted by profile of interests, geared mainly to boys.
• Le Bon Choix Réseau du Centre-du-Québec, de la Lanaudière et de la Mauricie) This bi-monthly  publications lists 130 new selections, bestsellers and most borrowed books (Top Livres) from Quebec public libraries. It will help you build your local collection. It includes annotations, in French, as well as bibliographic information. 

• BOUQUINET. Club de lecture. « Top 5 » 2007

  The following titles are the results of the annual “ TOP 5” choices of the best books read in 2007, compiled by the members of the book club Le BouquiNet. The titles are not necessarily books published in 2007 but rather books that were read by the members of the Book Club. You will notice that some books have hyperlinks, those are books that were also chosen  as one of the selections for the Book Club in 2007. 

• Centre AlphaPlus   Resources for adult learning. An extensive collection of French language materials that focus on adult and family literacy.
• Centre FORA. Catalogue FORA  serves as a clearinghouse for French language resources, many of which focus on literacy. OLS-N will offer a POOL comprising the collection from the Alpha Plus library, including French and English hi-l books and teaching resources.
• Communication Jeunesse Non-profit organization promoting French Canadian literature for children. Some lists can be downloaded. Runs book clubs like OLA's "Forest of Books" programs. Livromagie et Livromanie et Réseau CJ. For a fee will do book talks and programming.  A new section entitled Nouveautés lists all the new titles published in Québec and French Canada in the last six months. New additions are added automatically, as soon as they are received from the publishing houses.
• Quebec Plays in Translation   A catalogue of translations available at the Centre des auteurs dramatiques

Cataloguing Sources

• Amicus   (Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) The Canadian national catalogue is available free of charge. Order AMICUS items from other libraries via interlibrary loan; Find authorities and Canadian subject headings. Copy and download records. Interface completely bilingual.
• SDM Services documentaires multimédia Inc .  Cataloguing Tools and On-line Services  Quebec-based organization providing source cataloguing for most of what is published in French in Canada. Supplier of MARC records.
• Technical Services Resources see Services techniques dans les bibliothèques.  Lists links to francophone library catalogues and databases useful for cataloguing and sourcing publications

Collection Development Tools

• Développement des collections et ressources littéraires  Since library staff across the province may not be as familiar with the francophone publishing and information milieu in Canada and the world, this list pulls together all the tools you will need to help you develop your French collections. This is a list of French sources corresponding to what you find in English in Collection Development Resources, Literature and Fiction Resources and Youth Literature Resources

Linguistic Tools

• Le Répertoire des meilleurs sites Internet pour l’amélioration de la langue Bibliography of sites useful for learning the French language / Les sites répertoriés ont été choisis d’abord et avant tout pour la qualité de leur contenu et leur pertinence pédagogique.
• Le grand dictionnaire terminologique (Office québécois de la langue française) Search for terms in English, French and Latin for translations and definitions.

Links to Francophone Community

• Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ)    or "La grande bibliothèque"  has a two-fold mission. It collects and permanently preserves Québec's published documentary heritage, as well as all Québec-related documents published outside Québec. It also disseminates Québec’s documentary heritage in a user-friendly physical and virtual site providing all Quebecers with easy access free of charge to culture and universal knowledge.
• Le coin de la famille - votre portail de l'alphabétisation familiale ! (Centre FORA) This on-line service supports family literacy. It lists resources and services for parents and educators.
• Découverte de la francophonie. Franco.ca  Ontario Portal to francophone life in Canada.

Readers' Advisory

• Romans@lire  This fills a gap in the area of French Readers’ Advisory Services. It is an excellent tool. It  is a database developed by the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec to help you find novels according to your readers’ interests, whether they are looking for new titles or are looking for prize winning works. This database includes all novels and novellas written in Québec as well as all translations issued in Québec. All since 2000. Just type in a favorite author in the search box and you will be linked to a record where you can search by clicking on elements of the bibliographic data. Click on a subject and you will get a list of entries with the same subject etc…

Ready Reference

• La Bibliothèque de référence virtuelle   French mirror site of the Virtual Reference Library

• Collection de base virtuelle d'outils de référence Core list of 10 essential virtual reference tools 

• That's My Family / Voici ma famille (LAC) A federated search engine free of charge and available in French and in English, leads to genealogy and family history databases hosted by federal, provincial or territorial archives centres and libraries, or by other partners.

Suppliers

• Centre FORA  serves as a clearinghouse for French language resources, many of which focus on literacy  Twice a year, they circulate "trousses" [kits] of new materials to subscribers who are interested in reviewing new resources in the area of literacy. Some libraries might be interested in subscribing to this free service.
• Diffusion Dimedia   Distributor for over 150 publishers, of which 40 are from Québec. Liste des éditeurs.
• Éditions du Phoenix A Québec publishing house with an excellent English website. French publications are annotated in English. Includes the Phoenix Teacher’s Guides for teachers and librarians. Each guide includes a summary of the book and information about the author, as well as a wide range of activities and questions for discussion. Key themes from the book and new vocabulary words are reviewed in the guide.
• Librairie du centre (Ottawa) Centre franco-ontarien de ressources pédagogiques (CFORP) Cataloguing and selection services for public libraries. Supplies the schools as well. Good selection of children's books
• Livres, Disques, etc  (Division du Regroupement des éditeurs canadiens-français) A virtual bookstore of books and cultural products in French produced by fifteen French publishing houses outside the Quebec province, from New Brunswick (Acadia), Ontario and the West. 
• Les Messageries ADP Canadian book distributor. Represents over 160 publishers from Québec, France, Belgium and Switzwerland. This site has their monthly list of issues. Alos links to the authors and publishers who participate in the Salon du Livre de Montréal
• Prologue   Canadian book distributor providing trade book publishers with a full range of marketing, sales representation and distribution services for French language books and other book-related products throughout Québec and French Canada.

Suppliers - Audio books

• Audible.fr  French version of the American site Audible.com site. Offering downloaable audio books. The French catalogue is limited as the French publsihing industry has yet to catch on. The colleciton inlcudes classics as well as best sellers, news magazines, language learning tools and  self-help books as well a some French radio broadcasts  (Les Grosses Têtes, Le Grand Jury du dimanche, On refait le match). Click on the «Qu'est-ce qu'on y trouve?»  button for the best picks of the week
• COFFRAGANTS Books on tape. Originally created for children, this collection now serves an adult clientèle by issuing books on the following topics: philosophy, psychology, essays, novels, etc. Over 400 authors, comédians, singers (such as Marina Orsini, Pascale Bussière, Macha Grenon, Benoît Brière, Gilles Vigneault, Philippe Noiret, Richard Gere, Haley Joel Osment, etc...) have recorded for this audio book company
• Éditions V.D.B. Livres audios (France) The website is from France but there is a Québec supplier. This will give you an idea of the genres available. There is a list of new books as well as a full title list. Romance, Fantasy, Thrillers, real life stories and local history. Contact SOLS French Services consultant for a contact name and number of the Québec rep.

Systems

• Biblio Mondo  Multilingual automated system, Canadian office in Montreal
• Mandarin - French and English Interface