CIFNAL, the Collaborative Initiative for French Language Collections, was founded in 2006 to promote and facilitate the cooperative exchange of ideas and resources between Francophone and North American research libraries.

CIFNAL is made possible through the support of the Center for Research Libraries, which serves as its administrative, fiscal, and legal agent.

CIFNAL's initial goals are to:

• improve access to French and French-language resources for North American partners as well as access to North American resources for French and Francophone partners, and
• encourage collaboration between North American and Francophone establishments, endeavoring to develop connections between the collections.

CIFNAL has entered consortial agreements for electronic products critical to the study of the French language and to conduct research on French scholarship. These include Le Grand Robert, CAIRN, and the Electronic Enlightenment.  

In addition, CIFNAL has also undertaken the following projects:

• CIFNAL Speaker Series
• New Shape of Sharing: Networks, Expertise, Information
• New Directions for Libraries, Scholars, and Partnerships: an International Symposium
• Bibliothèque Bleue
• Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)

• Electronic Resources

• French Pamphlets
• Microfilm Project
• Regional and Local French Research Resources
• Strong Subject Collections among North American and French Libraries

CIFNAL welcomes new members, at the institutional or individual level, whether or not they are members of CRL.

Members can find other information related to the ongoing work of CIFNAL in the Workspace.