Answers to Go with Susan Smith

Q. I’d like to practice my Spanish conversation skills by watching foreign films. How can I find films with Spanish dialogue?

A. This patron preferred films with actors speaking Spanish over English language films with Spanish subtitles.

I conferred with our cataloger who is dedicated to making it easy for our patrons to find what they need in our online catalog.

This is his recommendation. Select our online catalog at the library’s website. Then just type DVD in the search box.

You’ll get a list of all of our DVDs. There is a column on the left. At the top it tells you how many hits you got. In this case, we have more than 10,000 DVDs.

Scroll down to the bottom of that left-hand column and click on Language. Select Spanish. Now the list will be pared down to 65 Spanish language films.

I thought I’d try another search: DVD Spanish subtitles. This time I got 3,006 results. I clicked on “Boyhood” and found this note: In English and Spanish with subtitles in English and Spanish. That film was not in my first list with 65 Spanish language films, but I believe it would have pleased this patron.

I do not think all of those 3,006 DVDs would have dialogue in Spanish, but I think it is worthwhile to broaden the search this way. I’m sure that many include the option of spoken Spanish. When you start the DVD, you will be able to select Spanish from the menus on the opening screen.

I want to mention another common request. Foreign films are popular here. To search for those include the name of a country: DVD foreign films France.

If you would like a film we don’t have, you may submit a purchase suggestion card. Many, but not all, of these DVDs are added to the library collection. If the library purchases the film, you will be notified when it comes in.

Of course, we also welcome book purchase suggestions.