The Library's Serial and Government Publications Division maintains one of the most extensive collections of newspapers, current periodicals, comic books, and government publications. With over 25,000 non-US titles, it is the largest collection of international newspapers in the world. These materials are served in the Library's Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room.
This collection includes thousands of French newspapers, magazines, and journals which are either on microfilm or bound in the general collections. For those without access to the Library of Congress directly, a list of currently published French-language newspapers and news sites with links can be found at French newspapers Online. External Digital archives of select French newspapers and periodicals (late 18th century to mid-20th century) can be found at Gallica's Presse quotidienne. External Current newspapers at the Library can be found by using this newspaper finding aid. The following finding aids and inventories are also helpful for locating French newspaper holdings at the Library of Congress.
Subscription databases also allow access to French language publications, and can be accessed onsite in any of the Library's three buildings. Popular literary magazines such as Lire (formerly Magazine Littéraire) and Livres Hebdo can be ordered at the Library, as well as numerous Fashion magazines such as French editions of Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Elle. Current events and news magazines such as Le Point, Le Figaro Magazine, Paris Match, L'Express, L'Obs, and La Revue are also available.
There are hundreds of French and English-language journals, mostly scholarly in nature including popular titles such as: Revue des deux mondes, Critique: revue générale des publications françaises et étrangères, Nouvelle revue française; Expressions Maghrébines, L'Esprit, Nineteenth-Century French Studies, Women in French Studies, and Yale French Studies. Journals are usually bound in hard copy and held in the general collections, but an ever increasing number of titles are also available from our subscription databases. For full-text online searching use other searching tools such as Serials Solutions for electronic journals in both subscription (e.g. JSTOR) and open access (e.g. Persée External ). EZB (Electronic Journals Library) links to electronic editions/archives in open access and subscription databases. A list of print and electronic indexes External to, guides External for, and websites External for Western European periodicals from the 17th to 21st centuries is available from the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL). External
The Library is also beginning to provide access to French e-books from our Electronic Resources Online Catalog. Currently these items can only be viewed while onsite, and they may be printed or downloaded from the Library. Current issues of the titles listed below can be viewed in the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room at the Library of Congress.
The Main Reading Room holds a comprehensive microfilm collection of telephone directories from France, including overseas departments, published by the French national library and the French post and telecommunications office, may be found under the title Annuaires téléphoniques, 1883-1959, [microfilm] reproduits sur microfilm avec le concours du Ministère des Poste et Télécommunications. Sable-sur-Sarthe : Bibliothèque Nationale, 1988. The collection is available in the Microform and Electronic Resources Center under the call number Microfilm 2000/54. A guide to that collection is available in the Main Reading Room: Microform Guide 530.
The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.