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Library Guides

Modern Languages: Arabic

Start with Library Search

Library Search is the main way to search for resources provided by the University of Westminster.

Use the search box below to look up print and electronic resources in Library Search, or go directly to the Library Search homepage.

Books

Books relevant to Arabic are are located in various sections of Cavendish library.

Some examples of shelf numbers for books relevant to Arabic
Subject Shelf number
Arabic language 492.7321
Arabic literature 892.736
Islamic history 909.097671
Islam and Inter-faith Studies 297
Islamic law 340.59

For locations of other shelf numbers please use Library Search, where you will also find e-books that can be read online.

Journals

Print journals and magazines are arranged alphabetically by title on the fifth floor of the library. However, the majority of our journal collection is available online via Library Search.

Some examples of e-journal titles relevant to Arabic are:

  • Arab Studies Quarterly
  • British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
  • Journal of Islamic Studies

To find a journal or magazine title, use the "Books, journals & more" option in Library Search. You may find it helpful to use the "Filter my results" menu to refine your search by Resource Type → Journals.

To find journal articles on a particular topic, use the "Articles & more" option in Library Search.

Databases

Our databases cover a wide range of material, including e-journals and e-books, multimedia resources, and dictionaries. A complete list of our databases can be found in the E-resources A-Z.

Key databases for languages are listed below:

  • Box of Broadcasts: A television and radio recording and archive service. Includes some foreign language channels.
  • British Humanities Index: An index of over 300 humanities journals and weekly magazines published in the UK and other English speaking countries, as well as quality UK newspapers.
  • Credo Reference: Over 500 online reference books, dictionaries and encyclopedias including bilingual dictionaries, useful for background research.
  • Factiva: A searchable database of newspapers, publications and business information from around the world.
  • JSTOR: Very useful, mainly full-text archive of leading humanities and social science academic journals; usually does not include issues published in the last few years.
  • Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts: Abstracts and indexes literature in the field of languages and linguistics.
  • MLA International Bibliography: An index which is very useful for modern languages, literature and linguistics.
  • Oxford Language Dictionaries Online: A quality dictionary and language learning tool.
  • Project Muse: High quality humanities and social science journals.
  • Web of Science: An integrated database of journal articles including the Social Sciences and Arts and Humanities Indexes.

You should be able to access most resources outside the University with your username and password. Contact the Student Centre if you have any problems.

Newspapers

Al-Sharq al-Awsat is an Arabic international newspaper that can be read online via a Google search.

Other Arabic newspapers can also be read online via the Factiva database in Library Search.

Multimedia

A collection of DVD films in various languages is available on the fifth floor of Cavendish Library. Resources such as language CDs are shelved within the book collection and can be found using the "Filter my results" menu in Library Search and refining your search by Resource Type → Audio.

For online films, videos and documentaries, use Library Search to refine your results by Resource Type → Videos or see the E-resources A-Z for a list of all our multimedia databases.

Tip: films in the Box of Broadcasts (BoB) database are not indexed in Library Search, so search within BoB itself to find what you need.

Dictionaries

Print mono and bilingual dictionaries can be found using the "Books, journals & more" search option in Library Search. The library also subscribes to electronic dictionaries in various languages, as well as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) online. See the Dictionaries tab on this guide for more information about dictionary resources.

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