French, German, Italian and Spanish

Your lecturers spend a lot of time deciding which resources to recommend, so always look at your module reading lists first. The link above takes you to the lists for courses in SELL.

Explore Credo for trusted reference sources like dictionaries - a great alternative to Wikipedia! 

Watch these short videos to get started:

1. Search tips
2. Using the automated mind map

Access around 200,000 ebooks across all subject areas.

Up-to-date, key facts and statistics, and background essays, for countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, Russia and Eastern Europe.

To access:

Login and then choose Login via Institution. 

Over 250 unlimited access in-depth guides to current and classic research across a range of subject areas. If you can't access something via this site, put the book title into our general Portsmouth catalogue as we have some titles via Ebook Central instead.

A cultural gateway into over 50 million digitised documents, maps, images and newspaper archives from across Europe. Thematic collections include World War I, fashion, industrial heritage, personal stories and sport. Special newspaper collections include issues covering the Paris World Exhibition of 1889, World War I and Eastern Europe in 1989.

Search lots of German and Austrian Library catalogues in one go. This site also gives access to Italian libraries.

Search all Spanish University Library catalogues in one go.

Search all French University Library catalogues in one go.

Freely available, high quality dictionaries in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish with translations into other languages also provided. Audio files give the pronunciation for every word listed.

A well-established site offering online language dictionaries (and verb conjugators for French, Spanish and Italian)

Access a range of English and multilingual dictionaries, including synonyms, abbreviations and acronyms

The Spanish equivalent of JSTOR covering over 2000 Humanities and Social Science journals published in Spain. Although this can help you locate articles written in Spanish, you don't get the full article for everything.

CAIRN lets you browse or search recent issues of journals written in French covering history, politics/IR, economics and contemporary society. Journals on CAIRN go back to about 2002 so if you want anything earlier or need other French journals use Persée.

Provides access to more than 12 million journal articles, books, images, reports and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
Watch this video for great tips.

The French equivalent of JSTOR providing thousands of articles in French on humanities and social science topics. 'Revues scientifiques' is the French term for academic journals - just click that link if you want an alphabetical list of the journals available.

Search e-journals and reports gathered by the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - useful if you want articles in German. If searching for words with Umlauts, replace the Umlaut with the letter "e" e.g. ue. As the search results will contain a mixture of free articles and those that need paying for, tick the option on the left to see the free articles and reports.

A peer-reviewed journal covering French literature, cinema, television, the press, the visual arts, popular culture, and cultural and intellectual debate.

A useful source of peer-reviewed articles about French social and political topics from the early twentieth century onwards.

The top, peer-reviewed journal for French topics taught at Portsmouth.

The top, peer-reviewed journal covering German history.

The leading, international, peer-reviewed journal covering German politics and public policy.

A useful source of peer-reviewed articles about German social and political topics from the early twentieth century onwards.

A very popular peer-reviewed journal covering a broad range of Italian topics.

A key peer-reviewed journal whose focus is the history, politics and social, economic and cultural studies of Italy, Italian affairs and the Italian peoples from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century.

A good source of peer-reviewed articles covering social and political topics across Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus.

A key source of peer-reviewed articles about Spain and Portugal from the beginning of the twentieth century onwards.

The most well-known, peer-reviewed journal on Latin America - it covers many aspects of Latin America as taught at Portsmouth.

A peer-reviewed journal which offers a multidisciplinary view of the forces that shape the Americas. Most issues focus on a single problem, nation, or region, providing an in-depth look from participants and scholars.

A peer-reviewed journal which focuses on the states, societies, economies, and international relations of the Americas.

An excellent source of peer-reviewed articles on Latin America. A distinctive feature of this journal is the large review essay section in each issue which compares and contrasts 5 or more books on specific topics (different each issue).

A good source of peer-reviewed articles covering social and political topics across Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus.

ALL's language specific journals comprise Francophonie for French, Deutsch Lehren und Lernen for German, Tuttitalia for Italian, Vida Hispánica for Spanish and Portuguese, and Rusistika for Russian. They feature links to resources, articles in English and the target languages, reviews of publications and resources, plus details of forthcoming events. This online site also includes resources for Mandarin and Arabic. Make sure you go to Language Zones to access specific material.

This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

You have two ways to access the login instructions:

1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

• Email: library@port.ac.uk
• Tel: 023 9284 3228

2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

View restricted access information for resources

To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.

A popular, peer-reviewed journal which covers the history of Eastern and Western Europe, including the United Kingdom, from 1918 to the present.

A peer-reviewed journal covering German and East European history, politics and current affairs

A good source of peer-reviewed articles covering all aspects of history across Europe from the later Middle Ages right up to the end of the twentieth century.

A key, peer-reviewed journal covering many cross-Europe topics of interest to courses taught at Portsmouth.

One of the most authoritative, peer-reviewed journals covering political and social issues in Western Europe. It always provides excellent coverage of all national elections in Western Europe.

Full text articles from many news sources and trade journals both UK and international. Archives sometimes stretching back to the mid 1980s. For use in the UK only.

PressReader lets you access UK and international newspapers, plus a wide range of magazine content. Everything is full colour with archives varying in length depending on the publication.

Login guidance

This archive gives you highly respected commentary and analysis of global news each week from 1843 to 2015. Search by subject or browse by date. The articles are full facsimiles, including photos and charts.
Read about financial crises as they happened.

Access stories and photos from The Guardian (1821-2003) and The Observer (1791-2003). Use Nexis if you want to search up to the current day.

Search over 200 years of articles. Articles are full facsimiles of what was published on the day and you can view the article in its original page location if you want.

Watch this video showing you how to make the most of the features available.

French television and radio news website

Archives of the French newspaper which was socialist up to 1920, then became communist

Archives of regional French newspapers from the early twentieth century.

Access the articles from this German daily from 1996 onwards

German weekly with articles accessible from 1946 onwards

Access articles from this key Spanish daily

Website of RTVE Spanish television

Official statistics for Germany covering a wide variety of topics.

Official statistics for Spain covering a wide variety of topics.

Official statistics for France covering a wide variety of topics.

This gives a wide range of statistics on population, education, (un)employment, agriculture, industry, motor vehicles, railways, TV and radio etc. Data can be viewed as PDF (downloadable) or Excel format which can then be exported. Make sure to use the "Search within book" option, not Springer's general search box at the top of the screen.

Information and survey data about Spanish society.

Access detailed results from French public opinion polls. We also have a great series of books called L'Etat de l'opinion going back to 1987 at 303.380944ETA on the library shelves which cover French public opinion on a range of popular topics each year.

Access public opinion surveys of EU citizens on a wide variety of topics from 1974 onwards.

French public opinion

French public opinion and market research

An archive of UK television and radio programmes from free to air channels (1998 onwards). For use in the UK only. Find some great tips about how to use BoB in these short videos.

French television and radio news website

A unique collections of films including award-winning documentaries, training films and theatrical releases on every topic imaginable. Content can be searched or browsed.

Website of RTVE Spanish television

This archive contains analysis, research, debates and speeches from the Royal Institute of International Affairs from 1920-2008. Topics covered include the Spanish Civil War, the Cold War, energy security, nuclear disarmament, decolonisation etc. You can also listen to recordings of meetings and speeches as well as seeing the transcript in many cases.

Watch this short introductory video.

A brilliant source containing essays, maps, primary sources and an interactive chronology on the theme of Empire across the last 5 centuries

Read in-depth coverage about empires across the world from ancient to modern times. Entries include the Suez Crisis of 1956, the partition of Africa, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dutch East Indies, propaganda and empire, decolonization in the French and British empires, postcolonialism and much more.

A cultural gateway into over 50 million digitised documents, maps, images and newspaper archives from across Europe. Thematic collections include World War I, fashion, industrial heritage, personal stories and sport. Special newspaper collections include issues covering the Paris World Exhibition of 1889, World War I and Eastern Europe in 1989.

Detailed information allowing you to compare education across 38 countries in Europe from pre-primary through to adult education.

Explore documents, fanzines, photos and newsreel footage to help understand these key decades when consumer culture and pop music took off and protest movements were big news.

Comprehensive details about the former French President and war leader.

Useful for immigration in France from 1820 onwards.

Detailed information about the infamous French Second World War transit camp.

Historic photos and video clips from the French Ministry of Defence

The official website of the French Foreign Ministry.

A highly recommended list of top quality websites covering many different aspects of France, French speaking countries and the French language.

Access thousands of documents on this free service provided by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF). The service also contains e-books which you need to pay for, so if you find something of interest which isn't free, please contain your Faculty Librarian.

French video clips on a wide variety of topics including French history.

Free online encyclopedia from a major French publisher. The site also has access to bilingual dictionaries.

Detailed information about many aspects of daily life in France.

Site produced by the French Government aimed at those living in France containing practical advice on a wide range of topics from housing to education

Information about current French politics, economics and social topics produced by the French government.

German history portal with information also available in English

A German think tank specialising in foreign policy.

The official German government website

A highly recommended list of top quality websites covering many different aspects of Germany, German speaking countries and the German language.

Witness testimonies, archives, and further resources on the Holocaust.

A good source of information about Germany from the early 1800s onwards.

A highly recommended list of top quality websites covering a broad range of Italian topics, including cinema, culture, history, language, literature and politics.

A key source of primary documents and photos covering the Spanish Civil War. A large part of this online archive is Spanish language, but there are some items in English and German.

A highly recommended list of top quality websites covering many different aspects of Spain and Portugal and their languages.

The official website of the Spanish government.

If you want the text in English, click here.