The Foreign Language Collection

Located at the Headquarters Library
300 Maiden Lane, Fayetteville, NC 28301-5000

The Headquarters Library has approximately 18,000 foreign language books and sound recordings housed in the Foreign Language Collection (FLC), which is located on the second floor. These materials can be borrowed under the same conditions as all other library materials. Ten languages are represented in the collection, and they are cataloged in the library's database of holdings, LeoCat.


For twenty two years, the library was the recipient of federal funds to develop a foreign language collection for the state of North Carolina. Although this federal program was discontinued in 1998, the library developed an alternative program to continue this service to libraries in North Carolina.


A subscription service was established in 1998 to provide deposit collections and interlibrary loan services on a sliding scale to participating North Carolina public and other libraries. Beginning in 2007, the State Library of North Carolina provided partial support for the FLC with a year to year federal grant. Due to declining participation, the Foreign Language Center ceased operations as of June 30, 2011.

Book Collections

The majority of books in the FLC collection are contemporary novels, poetry, standard classics, popular nonfiction and children's works. Languages remaining in the Foreign Language Center include Chinese, French, German, Gujarati, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Urdu, and Vietnamese.

Sound Recordings

The FLC offers a wide selection of folk and traditional music CDs from many countries. These are also shelved on the second floor with the Headquarters Library's music CD collection in the international section. This section is arranged alphabetically by country or region. The larger music collections consist of British, Chinese and Latin America.