Directory Information Library: The National Library of Iran Address: Tehran Contact: Telephone: Fax: Http: E-mail:

History & Collections


The National Library of Iran was established in 1937 in Tehran. It has a good general collection of about 500,000 volumes including 12,000 manuscripts, 20,000 books on librarianship and more than 30,000 books in Western languages on Iranology and Islamic studies.


The Library has a rich collection of Iranian periodicals, numbering about 1200 titles, dating back to the earliest newspapers published in Iran. The National Library was not very active before the Islamic Revolution because of a lack of professional staff, but became more active after 1983 when the Tehran Book Processing Center and its professional staff were transferred to the National Library. The National Library publishes the semi-annual National Bibliography of Iran and the annual Directory of Iranian Periodicals.

Sources:

Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, 8th ed., v.4, Detroit: Gale Research Center, 1995 p.176-177.
World Encyclopedia of Library and Information Services, 3rd ed. Chicago: American Library Association, 1992, p. 388-389.
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