Introduction
National library of Iran (NLI) was established in 1937, one of its most significant roles was creating a comprehensive list of publications produced within the country. Also the parliament in Iran passed legislation for a mandatory depository law in 1907. It requires all publishers to submit 2 copies of every published Persian-language material to the National Library. It includes materials about Iran published in other countries as well. Therefore, according to an agreement between the National Library and cultural sections of a number of Iranian Embassies around the world, one copy of all Persian books that have been published in other countries are to be collected and submitted to the National Library of Iran. Although the law was passed in 1907 and despite many efforts made by NLI directors, it was not enforced for over fifty years. Only from 1964 onwards NLI began to receive a regular flow of national publications. But even so, only a part of national publishing output was ever delivered to NLI.
The interests and objectives of national bibliography vary in different countries, but it is often defined as the reflection of a country’s history and culture in a chronological order. Iranian national bibliography (Ketab Shenasi Melli Iran) was first initiated by Iraj Afshar in 1954, and was published by the Royal Institute of Translation and Publication of Persia. Despite the long history of creating traditional national bibliography, publication records, do not go far back in the history. The earliest edition lasted for ten years. Another valuable collection was created by H. BaniAdam under various subject headings which chronologically followed Afshar’s work(Tehran 1973) arranged by Dewey decimal classification. Children’s books are also listed at the end of this bibliography. Later an expanded and revised edition was published in 1967 covering a ten year time span(1954-1963).
As a result of Afshar and BaniAdam’s work the National Library of Iran launched an annual publication of Iran national bibliography.
A brief history of the Iranian National Bibliography
- 1963-1967 Title: The National Bibliography, published by: Intesharat-i Iran
- 1963-1967 Title: The National Bibliography, published by: Intesharat-i Iran
- 1968-1969 It was not published
- 1970 The title was changed to National Bibliography of Iran Published annually
- 1971-1975 Published quarterly
- 1976-1980 Published semiannuall
- 1981-1982 Published annually1983-1990 Published with revised index, by the Iranian National Library
- 1983-1996 Published semiannually
- 1990 Iranian National Library changed its name to National Library of the Islamic Republic of Iran
- 1997- Present Available on compact discs, published three times a year. The latest CD, contains previous bibliography in addition to the present status