According to the definition of the Iranian Academy of Persian Literature, all printed materials that are published within regular, pre-set periods, are considered to be periodicals, such as magazines, newspapers, etc. The periodicals section of the National Library is as old as the Library itself and is the most comprehensive archive of periodicals in Iran. Also, news bulletins, seminar reports and yearbooks are collected and kept here. Another valuable source for researchers in the National Library is an in-house use archive of old and contemporary periodicals. In addition, periodicals published in Persian, Arabic and English periodicals are also available. Iranian newspapers, magazines and other periodicals published since the Qajar dynasty (the birth-date of Iranian journalism) can be found here. Nearly 2500 titles of contemporary periodicals such as newspaper, weekly, monthly, quarterly materials and over 5000 titles of old periodicals are cited in the archive of the section.
Restoration of old periodicals
Since the early 1990s, the National Library set out on re-printing some of the old and rare periodicals of Iran belonging to the Qajar era. The papers already published are:
- The Vaghaye Ettefaghieh Newspaper
- The Dowlat Alayhe Iran Newspaper
- The Iran va Iran-e-Soltani Newspaper
- The Anjoman-e-Tabriz Newspaper
- The Akhtar Newspaper
- The Hablol Mateen Newspaper
- The Hekmat Newspaper
- The Sorayya Newspaper
- The Shokoufeh van Danesh Newspaper
- The Tarbiat Newspaper
IDC-Iranian Documentation Center
The Iranian Documentation Center announces the publication of its first reference monograph, The Directory of Iranian Periodicals, the most complete of its kind.
This directory provides full bibliographic description for 244 periodicals and has been published in both Persian and English versions. The periodicals are arranged alphabetically by title, and the full address, telephone number, founding date subject matter, frequency, affiliation, names of editor and publisher, price and language of publication are given.
Originally produced as project of the Department of Library Science. College of Education, University of Tehran, the Directory is soft bound and contains 106 pages. The compiler is Poori Soltani, Chief Cataloger, Tehran Book Processing Center, a graduate of the Department of Library Science, where she is now a part-time instructor.
Irandoc is a national science and social science center designed to provide modern information services for Iranian professors and researchers. The Directory is the first of several planned publication projects. Copies are available from the Iranian Documentation center, P.O. Box 11-1387, Iran.
Soltani, Poori. A Directory of Iranian Periodicals,Tehran
UIUC Call Number: Main Stacks 016.05 D62
Volumes: 1969-1971-1972-1973-1974-1975-1977-1978-1979-1980
The directory seeks to include all Iranian periodicals. The international omissions are those titles which, due to the trivial nature of their subject matter, are not deemed worthy of listing. Typical examples are the house organs of several foreign embassies. ‘Periodical’ in this directory means any magazine which is bound and published at least twice a year. Weekly newspapers have been omitted since they should be included in a directory of newspapers. All continuations and annual reports have been omitted. On the other hand, even if a periodical, as described above, has published only one or two issues in the year of coverage, or has stopped publishing altogether, it has still been included. Statistical bulletins, bibliographies, and indexes which are published periodically are included in this list because of their importance for researchers. All information published in this directory is based upon questionnaires sent to periodical publishers annually. Periodicals are listed alphabetically according to Anglo-American Cataloging Rules under their titles [Poori Soltani, Introduction, 1974].
* The number of publishers who received and responded to the survey has not been specified.
Evaluation: 1969-71
Due to heavy printing expenses, lack of market, and the presence of most public and private institutes in the capital (Tehran), the number of periodicals published in the provinces is still small.
Many periodicals have a very short life. They are printed for a short while and soon dropped. Most of them are literary periodicals. Titles with words such as;
“Majalleh= Magazine”, “Nashriyeh=publication”, “Nameh=Letter”, etc., have been inverted and placed at the end. However, whenever such inversion caused
distortion of the title, the word was kept at the beginning. Extensive cross-referencing is included to facilitate access.
Evaluation: 1972-75
Same as above.
Evaluation: 1978-79
Fortunately, as this directory shows, the number of current magazines compared with those indexed in the last issue has increased, i.e., the 1977 edition held 324 titles while we find 336 titles in the edition of 1978. A survey of the periodicals published in 2536
(1977/78) reveals the fact that most of the new periodicals are published by various corporate bodies. The Atomic Energy organization of Iran, with 5 periodicals, is a good example of an encouraging progression. Some of the new periodicals are in English or French.
In this day and age, it seems that provincial periodicals, mainly published by universities and colleges are increased in number, from 35 titles to 37. Periodicals of Jiroft have ceased publication and the number of those published in cities like, Esfahan and Shiraz
Has decreased. This is always the case not only for provincial periodicals , but for many governmental magazine in Tehran as well. A publication strted through the eefforts of one man will soon be dropped if the person moves to a new job and is not there to watch over the publication. A glance into the list of cessations and the number of new titles proves that the continuity is poor.
Entries may include the following information:
- Subject matter
- Date of first issue
- Publication frequency
- President or proprietor
- Editor or director
- Subscription rate
- Language of publication
- Institutional affiliation
- Contact information
Transliteration
Naser Sharifi’s rules of transliteration have been used in this volume. After having studied several other systems such as those used by the Library of Congress wich is based on Arabic pronunciation, the author has found Sharifi’s system simpler and more accurate. Both the Tehran Book Processing Center and the Iranian Documentation Center have adopted these rules with little modification.
