Foreign Language Services

The Federal Research Division is proficient in more than 25 foreign languages and can supplement this expertise with additional language capabilities within the Library of Congress. Some 51% of the Library’s collections are in foreign languages and consist of materials in more than 460 foreign languages. Those offered by FRD include:

Using these language skills and subject expertise, FRD prepares client-directed studies and reports, annotated bibliographies, databases, literature searches, and foreign language abstracts and translations. Quality control review is provided for all products. Delivery can be in hard-copy and agreed-upon electronic formats.

Federal agencies that have recently used FRD’s language program include the Departments of the Army, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Labor, Transportation and others.

Translation and Abstracting Services

FRD can translate information from the target language into English or from English into the target language. A 100-word abstract of foreign language documents can also be prepared with full bibliographic citation. Rates are based on the length of the document and the alphabet used by the target language (Latin/Cyrillic vs. Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, and Persian.)

For our current translation and abstracting rates, please email us at frds@loc.gov.