Following the Francophone and Arabic display of books from North Africa, including books on textiles, organised at the University Library, this guide aims to facilitate more in-depth research into CULs’ print and electronic collections.

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L’Algérie de nos jours. Alger : J. Gervais-Courtellemont, 1893 (S644.a.89.1)

Print collections

• Advanced use of iDiscover: use subject heading links to find publications on similar topics

Example : Les Marocains et leurs langues : ce que parler quatre ou cinq langues veut dire / Farid Bahri (2023)

• • Scroll down and click on Multilingualism – Morocco

Or : L’an I du Hirak : autopsie d’une révolution inédite / Nordine Grim (2020)

Scroll down and click on

• •  Algeria — Politics and government — 21st century 
  • Or Algeria — Social conditions — 21st century

(you can change the country, the century etc.)

It is possible to download Excel spreadsheet of results from catalogue searches. Do get in touch (french@lib.cam.ac.uk) if you would like to know more.

• The UL open shelves (20^th c): History and geography of North Africa at the UL are at North front 6
  •  569:6-8        Former French colonies and overseas territories
  •  640:6           France in Africa, general
  •  647:1-2        French-speaking Africa
  •  644:1            North Africa etc
  •  645:2           Tunisia
  •  645:3           Algeria
  •  645:4          Morocco

Details :

There are books relating to North Africa in many other parts of the UL open shelves, for example, in the or Art or Literature sections etc.

• Example of an open shelf classmark : 645:4.c.200.10

a, b, c, d, e corresponds to the largest to the smallest format.

• • .90 is for published 1900-1949
  • .95 for 1950-1999
  • .200 for 2000-2009
  • .201 for 2010-2019
  • .202 for 2020-

Nb : you can Browse by classmarks on iDiscover, for example books starting with 645:4. However, most of the recent acquisitions will be closed access material that you can request via iDiscover.

• French collections (part of Collections and Academic Liaison)

• Near and Middle Eastern Department
• Rare books Department

In particular:

• The Liberation collection (WW2: 1944-1946)

Includes hundreds of publications from outside of France -with about 35 titles published in Algeria, and a couple from Tunisia and Morocco.

iDiscover can provide approximate search results (see with “Alger” for example) but you can also use the metadata provided in the 2022 Liberation collection dataset (do ask if you would like to access the updated dataset / specific searches).

• The Royal Commonwealth Society collection (20^th c. ) 

Both print and manuscripts, with monographs and periodicals. It is useful to use the RCS printed collections guide / card catalogue in the Rare books reading room to search by country.

• Official publications
  • Morocco OP.33510
  • Algeria OP.33540
  • Tunisia OP.33550

You can search by classmark in iDiscover, but not everything is online, it varies by country. In the Rare books reading room, the Official Publications print class catalogues at the numbers above will be much more comprehensive.

• Moh collection

Some books are on open access at West 4 (4th floor of the UL, at the back). Withdrawn Moh books, now part of Rare Books, are largely accessions of books in Arabic, Persian and Turkish published in the West before 1850, or in the Middle East before 1900. Further collections in these and other Near Eastern languages are found in S810-S848 (early printing, including the collection of Ibrahim Müteferrika imprints) and 6/7810-6/7848 (17th and 18th century books).

See also the Bensly  rare book collection: Hebrew and Arabic books from the library of R.L. Bensly, Professor of Arabic, 1887-1893, donated to the library in 1894.

Alger, description spéciale du port, des fortifications, des monuments et de la position de la ville… Paris, 1835 (Maps.d.18.L.6)

• Maps collections

Maps, atlases, older and modern. Only a small portion of the Maps holdings are on iDiscover : it is best to consult in the Maps reading room the printed card catalogues by country or city.

• Music collections on open shelves or in closed access
• Periodicals in print, microfilm and electronic forms

Some (older) holdings are held at the Library Storage Facility and need to be requested in advance via iDiscover.

• FAMES (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies) library

Includes Special Collections and some non-English material.

• MMLL (Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics) library
• Seeley / History faculty library and the World History library guide (includes many electronic resources)
• Centre of African Studies Library

The collection’s particular focus is Africa south of the Sahara: see their Libguide.

Digital resources

• A-Z Databases, including the databases for African Studies and Francophone Area Studies
• Cambridge Digital Library

Digitisations of material held across the UL and Cambridge libraries. Includes Islamic Manuscripts.

• Black Lives Matter and decolonisation in the Francophone world: bibliography of e-resources at CUL
• Gallica, the Bibliothèque nationale de France’s digital library.

Resources on :

• • Africa
  • Algeria
  • Morocco
  • Tunisia
• Retronews 

RetroNews, the press site of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, gives access to more than 2000 press titles published between 1631 and 1952, adding to the resources present on Gallica. It works as a digital space for consulting newspapers archives, a research tool and a magazine.

Thématiques : Colonies (articles, videos, focus on certain events, based on the digitised historical press).

Retronews includes 8 titles from Algeria:

Titre on Retronews Sous titre	Périodicité	Ville en Algérie	Date de publication sur retronews (début)	Date de publication sur retronews (fin)	Nombre total de fascicule indexés
El Eco espanol Periodico independiente se publica los jueves y los domingos. Ciencia, literatura, arte, espectaculos, comercio, navegacion, industria, noticias, anuncios	Bihebdomadaire	Oran	04/05/1911	20/02/1915	22
Lega franco-italiana Commercio e informazioni	Bihebdomadaire	Annaba	10/12/1896	03/01/1897	7
Demain (Alger) Journal socialiste et de défense syndicaliste	Hebdomadaire	Alger	26/04/1919	10/02/1921	90
Cocu	Hebdomadaire	Oran	11/11/1883	10/01/1884	12
Atlas Journal démocratique de l’Algérie	Quotidien	Alger	26/08/1849	08/12/1851	263
Le Chahut Paraissant tous les jours de Sabbat	Hebdomadaire	Alger	12/12/1885	12/12/1885	1
Fontaine Cahiers bimestriels de culture et d’information poétique	Mensuel	Hussein Dey	01/11/1938	01/08/1940	56
Moniteur algérien annonces légales, judiciaires, administratives, commerciales et maritimes	Hebdomadaire	Alger	27/01/1832	30/07/1857	1525
Courrier de Tlemcen Politique, littéraire, commercial et agricole	Hebdomadaire	Oran	04/04/1863	29/12/1922	1856
Écho d’Alger journal républicain du matin	Quotidien, illustré	Alger	16/03/1912	30/12/1944	11776

• Bibliothèque du Réseau Francophone Numérique

Section Afrique du Nord et Moyen-Orient

• European Colonialism in the Early 20th Century: French Colonialism in Africa, from Algeria to Madagascar (1910-1930)  

Part of the electronic database Archives Unbound (Gale)

Do get in touch if you would like to know more or to add to the sign-posted resources (french@lib.cam.ac.uk).

Irene Fabry-Tehranchi