The material in the Library's collection is composed primarily of works by American and other English-language authors, and features significant holdings in American history and civilization, literary criticism, poetry, popular culture, fine arts, humanities, and the social sciences. Law, Medicine, and the Sciences are presented on an introductory level only.

The Library also offers the best of classic and contemporary fiction; English translations of world literature; English-language literature on artists and their artworks; business information, and an extensive collection of reference materials, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, basic reference works in all fields, bibliographies, and periodical indexes.

The Library welcomes and ecourages suggestions for purchases. These suggestions are used to help the Library's staff in developing collections that serve the interest and needs of our members and the community.

Search the Catalog

Use our online catalog search to find books, music and videos from our general and children's collections. Locate items by keyword or use the Advanced Search page to search by phrase, author, title, subject, or series. Members of the Library can also log into the online catalog to renew items, place items on hold, create lists and more.

• Children & young adults collection
  With more than 10,000 volumes, The American Library in Paris has one of the largest collections of English-language books for young readers in continental Europe. The collection includes pre-school picture books, easy readers, young adult fiction, non-fiction, and a variety of English-language magazines. Hundreds of children's films are available on video or DVD, as well as audio books and CD-ROMs.
• Audio-visual collection
  The Library's collection of CDs and audio tapes includes jazz, pop, folk songs, ballads, classical works, and audio books. American and international films, as well as documentaries and popular TV series, are available on video or DVD. Also available: Language learning methods, on audio-tape, CD or video.

Search the Library catalog for books, music, videos, and more.

Recommended Reading

Need help finding an award winning book? A book by an author from your home country? Just looking for a good read?

Check out some great suggestions from our staff, as well as a host of recommended reading lists.

Digital Databases

We are pleased to offer our members and users two leading digital content databases, EBSCO’s MasterFILE Premier and JSTOR’s Arts and Sciences, containing full-text articles from more than 2,500 periodicals - multiplying our current paper holdings by a factor of ten. We also provide access to EBSCO NOVEList, an electronic readers' advisory resource which assists fiction readers in finding new authors and titles.

You can access the JSTOR and EBSCO databases at two dedicated computer stations in the Library, or when you are hooked up to the Wi-Fi system on your laptop in the Library. You can download selections from the databases to your laptop's hard drive or USB key.

View the list of digital databases available onsite to Library members.

Journals, Magazines, Newspapers

The Library holds an extensive periodicals collection with more than 400 newspaper, magazine and journal titles avaliable, some of which date back to the 19th century, including The International Herald Tribune which is available on microfilm from 1888 to the present. Current periodicals are also available, ranging from weekly and monthly magazines on entertainment, the arts, and lifestyle issues, to specialty publications focusing on specific areas of business, politics, and education.

Periodicals are physically located in four places:

• Magazine area: Newspapers, magazines and journals, some circulating, some not. Mostly popular titles.
• Mezzanine: Mostly journals (current, going back up to 2-4 years) plus back issues of some popular titles (The New Yorker, Time Magazine, Newsweek, The Economist)
• Research Center: Back issues of newspapers (one year), microfilm collection (magazines, journals and newspapers). In addition, a workstation provides access to The New Yorker and other journals on CD/DVD-ROM.
• Basement: Archived back issues of magazines and journals (ask at the Reference Desk for these).

We also provides onsite access to the JSTOR and EBSCO digital databases containing full-text articles from more than 2,500 periodicals. For more details, see Digital Databases above.

View an A-Z list of periodicals currently available and their location in the Library.

Bibliographic Indexes

The Library's collection includes eleven bibliographic indexes. Use them to locate the citations (title, author, name of the periodical, date, volume, page numbers) and in some cases annotations of relevant magazine or journal articles, book reviews, plays, short stories and more.

View detailed descriptions of the bibliographic indexes available at the Library.

CAPES/Agrégation

French university students seeking to become teachers of English, American Literature or "American Studies" at the high school or college level must be certified by passing the CAPES exam or the Agrégation. In response to the need for study materials, the Library staff has developed a special collection targeted at each year's exam questions.

Explore the Library's list of specially compiled resources for CAPES/Agrégation students.

Special Collections

Members and users of the Library have access to unique special collections including materials donated by Olivia de Havilland, an Honorary Lifetime Trustee of the Library, Marlene Dietrich, Sylvia Beach, and others. New in 2009, the Library has partnered with Parsons Paris School of Art and Design to host the school's art related collection.

Find out more about the Library's special collections.