Students & Researchers

Use the Library

Especially For

Students and researchers

The American Library in Paris provides access to a marketplace of ideas and is an important resource for assignments that encourage students to go beyond the course syllabus. With a collection of materials, some dating back to the 19th century, researchers travel from around the world to access our unique collection.

Student memberships as well as year-long and short-term individual memberships are available. See our list of membership options and details of how to join.

What the Library Offers...

Reference Help Desk

The Reference Help Desk is staffed with librarians to help you with your questions. If you have a question about the Library or a question regarding the research you're doing, please ask us. We can help you to use our catalog and research center, refine your search so that you find more items on your topic, help you locate items in the building, and more. No question is too big or too small.

Ask a Librarian!

Research and Reference Materials

Our collection of more than 120,000 resources features a strong non-fiction collection, as well as a reference collection covering all areas of knowledge. The Library has significant holdings by American and other English-language authors in American history, literary criticism, and poetry.

The Library's Research Center houses a number of research tools, including CD-ROM indexes and a periodicals collection (some of which date back to the 19th century). Over 200 current periodicals are 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.

An extensive collection of reference books may be consulted in the Library, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, basic reference works in all fields, bibliographies, and periodical indexes. The Modern Language Association International Bibliography, the World Atlas, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Encarta are available on CD-ROM. The International Herald Tribune is available on microfilm from 1888 to present.

We are also pleased to offer our members and users two leading digital content databases, JSTOR’s Arts & Sciences Collection and EBSCO’s MasterFile Premier, containing full-text articles from more than 2,500 periodicals - multiplying our current paper holdings by a factor of ten.

Explore the collection!

Internet Access

Internet access is free for all members and users. Come in and sign up for a half-hour at a time at the Reference Desk for one of our two computer workstations. The Library also provides Wi-Fi Internet access - ask for the access password at the Circulation Desk.

See our Internet Access Policy and usage guidelines.

Proctor Service

As a service to members and area residents, The American Library in Paris offers a test proctoring service for independent study students. We provide supervision of both written and online tests.

Contact the reference librarian for more information.

CAPES/Agrégation d'Anglais Dossiers

In order to teach English in French schools, teachers need to be certified by the State the Agrégation d'Anglais exam and in the past, the CAPES (Certificat d'Aptitude au Professorat de l'Enseignement du Second degré) as well. These exams covers various areas of English studies, such as literature from English-speaking authors, social or history topics about English-speaking countries, grammar and linguistics.

The Library compiles and makes avaliable books, articles, bibliographies, criticism and other information pertaining to each year’s official program (around 10 topics a year). Dossiers of critical articles are compiled from the Library's periodical collection, including literary criticism, articles of general interest, and topical news stories. These resources are invaluable to not only the students in the program, but for teachers developing their course plans as well.

Visit the Agrégation d'Anglais page for the current year's program materials.

To consult archived materials, contact the refererence librarian.