This Library was established in 2001 with a view to promoting fundamental studies in the field of Iranology, introducing the historical, literary, cultural, and scientific background of Iran and Iranians, creating an appropriate place for conducting research, and providing library services to learned people and researchers.
The Central Library is home to an organized collection of about 170,000 specialized Iranology documents in the following sections, namely: the Documents, Manuscripts, and Lithographed Books Section, the Circulation Section, the Reference Section, and the Periodicals Section.
The Library contains 108,347 Persian and English books under 79,702 titles, about 7,000 titles of non-book documents (including reports, proposals, theses, and dissertations), 21,000 titles of audiovisual materials (including posters, maps, postcards, CDs, photos, slides, and films), and about 40,000 issues of periodicals. Despite its short lifetime, this Library is considered to be one of the richest specialized-research centers for Iranology studies.
Presently, the Document Center contains 60 precious manuscripts, 100 typographed books, 360 lithographed books, and more than 110 old and repaired documents, scrolls, and maps. The Restoration Center for Documents and Manuscripts will begin its activities in the near future.
In order to provide quick access to the Library’s resources through a comprehensive system, the Classification and Cataloging Section is responsible for listing, classifying, indexing, and arranging all the sources of the Library by employing bibliographical methods and tools and new technologies based on the current national library standards. The other duties of this Section include the following:
The classification of the resources into different collections in the Central Library includes preparing lists and bibliographies, choosing, ordering, purchasing, and donating books, and exchanging print and non-print library materials with other libraries through the following stages:
With a collection of 20,000 resources (6500 titles), the Reference Section operates by using the open-shelf system. The arrangement of the sources in the shelves is based on their subjects, and members can freely access them. The materials in the Reference Section can only be used in the Library and are not lent out to the members.
From among the activities of this Section, we can refer to the following:
This Section contains a collection of about 40,000 old and recent periodicals under 3,000 titles in Persian and English, on topics related to Iran and Iranology in the fields of history, culture, sociology, and politics. Housing a number of rare periodicals, this Section is considered to be one of the richest archives in the field of Iranology. The arrangement of the items in this section is alphabetical, and it operates using the closed shelf system. Users can receive their requested resources from the section librarian by presenting a request form. Some of the services provided in this Section include the following:
The storage of non-book materials is on the fourth floor of the Library building. The documents in this collection are not lent out to users but can be used by the members in the study hall. The existing documents in this Section include 3323 CD titles, 5410 video cassette titles, 1002 audio cassette titles, 1577 digital picture titles, 2436 slide titles, 1242 picture titles, 2493 poster titles, 2256 postcard titles, 450 brochure titles, 885 map titles, and some negatives and microfilms.
The Circulation Section of the Central Library of the Iranology Foundation is responsible for responding to the demands of library users and providing the following services:
Library users can refer to the circulation bylaw of the Library for the required information about the conditions of membership and borrowing books.
Working Hours of the Library
Contact Information of the Library and Document Center of the Iranology Foundation