Do You Speak Multiple Languages?
Posted March 10, 2025 in General Collections News, JMU Libraries News
Happy International Day of Multilingualism (March 27)! At JMU Libraries, we’re happy to offer books, videos, and other resources in a variety of languages. We’re also proud to offer a Library Search tool that can be used in 20 different languages to access all our materials. Keep reading to learn more!
Watch Movies in Other Languages
Kanopy is an award-winning video streaming service providing access to more than 30,000 independent and documentary films, available to you for free as a member of the JMU community. Kanopy allows you to filter for movies in 44 languages! You can also check out these language collections in Kanopy:
- Spanish-Language Cinema and movies with Spanish subtitles
- French Cinema
- Chinese Cinema
- Portuguese Cinema
- German Cinema
Use Our Library Search Tool in 20 Languages
Did you know you can select from 20 languages when searching for articles, books, and more in JMU Libraries? The search interface will display in your preferred language!
You can also search by using voice-to-text in a variety of languages, or by entering characters from languages such as Arabic, Japanese, or Hebrew.
How to select a display language in Library Search:
- Visit Library Search.
- Select the “Menu” option in the upper right area of the screen. On a mobile device, the menu option will be signified by three dots in the upper right area of the screen.
- Choose “Display Language.”
- Select your language of interest (see list of languages below).
- Search for books, articles, videos and other items in our collections, and the search interface will be displayed in the language you selected! That is true for all items, not just items written in the selected language.
Languages include:
The available display languages in Library Search are Arabic, Catalan or Valencian, Chinese or Traditional Chinese (as seen in the screenshot at right), Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Welsh.
How to search in a variety of languages:
- Type in your search terms: You can find items in Library Search by entering words or phrases in multiple languages, including languages that use a vernacular script, such as Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, or Cyrillic.
- Use voice-to-text search: If you have access to Google Chrome and a microphone, you can also use Library Search with voice-to-text search in a variety of languages.
Benefits of these multilingual features:
Dr. Steven Holloway, our Director of Metadata Strategies and the driving force behind these features, points out that being able to use Library Search in multiple languages can support both the local community as well as JMU students and researchers:
“Using Library Search in another language could be valuable as a pedagogical exercise for students learning a new language. It could also support immigrant Harrisonburg residents for whom English is an additional language.”