A Brief History of the Faculty of Literature and Humanities (FLH)

 

As the oldest faculty in the Persian-speaking world, the faculty of Literature and Humanities(FLH) is a unique and historic institution. There is no clear date of foundation, but its activities date at least go back to 1928, and was developed rapidly from 1934, when the act of institution of University of Tehran was approved in Iran's national parliament. It was one of the six faculties were envisaged and reiterated in the law approved by Iranian National Parliament to institute the University of Tehran. In October 1937, a program was developed in FLH to grant doctorate degree in Persian literature. In November of the same year, for the first time, the "Persian Language and Culture" course was developed in FLH to be granted to foreign students. The responsibility of publishing the most famous and authentic Persian encyclopedia, firstly compiled by Aliakbar Dehkhoda, the Iranian well-known poet and author of 20th century, was assigned to FLH in November 1956 and led to the institution of  "Loghatnameye Dehkhoda. FLH has also had a very profound effect on propagation of Iranian and Islamic culture all over the world. Its Research-Scientific Quarterly, as the oldest scientific journal of the university has being published since 1953. It is being presently published in form of following specialized journals: 
 
* Journal of Language Researches 
 
*Journal of Persian Literature 
 
*Journal of Philosophy 
 
*Journal of Archeological Studies
 
*Journal of Researches on Historical Sciences  
 
*Journal of Arabic Literature 
 
* Journal of Iranology (Iranian Studies) 
 
* Research Letter of Literary Criticism and Rhetoric
 

 

The library of the Faculty of Literature was established in 1918 as a part of Central College of Teachers.

The literature library has had collaborations with the libraries of the institute of Social Studies and Research, Institute of Archaeology, Institute of Geography, and Dehkhoda Dictionary.

Books published by many researchers have been purchased. Also some privately-owned series were donated to the library; some of them are as follows:

1- The 2242-book series by Mohamad Qazvini in 1950
2- The 1500-book series by Ahmad Bahmanyar and 104-book series by Taqi Khajavi in 1953
3- The 2250-book series by Abbas Eqbal in 1955
4- 6500 books and magazines by the Farmanfarmayan family in 1959
5- The 3000-book series by Hamid and Fatima Sayah in1960
6- 5200 books by Aliasqar Hekmat in 1961
7- The 1200-book series by Abdullah Saboohi Vaez in 1962
8- 1000 books by Imam of Friday Prayer of Kerman and 2700 books by Hasan Taqizadeh in 1964
9- Book series by Masoud Ansari and by the French government in 1966
10- The 100-book series by Azarhooshang Bakhtari in 1968


Some rare books and dissertations on Orientalism in E. Litman's library, a rare volume of History of the Prophets and Kings published by Leiden, Gibb's donations and manuscripts, lithography and Movable-type works were the items which were gradually added to the library and, thus, the library went through its process of evolution.

The series of libraries of University of Tehran, which supports higher education and researchers, consists of a central library, the libraries of faculties and dependent institutes:

1- Central Library of University of Tehran: Central Library is mostly devoted to research and includes varied research series. This library is responsible for collecting all the works published in the country, sources relating Islamic studies and Iranology, and reference works of different university majors published abroad.
2- Libraries of faculties and dependent institutes: They have been founded in accordance with scientific and education needs of corresponding faculties and institutes and are responsible for collecting specialized sources needed by students and professors.
The types of sources available in the libraries of University of Tehran are as follows:

1- Monographs: including theses and dissertations
2- ISSNs: including periodicals and non-periodicals
3- Archived materials: including manuscripts, manuscript documents, microfilms, and photographs
4- Visual and auditory materials
5- Electronic sources
6- Maps

Sources which are not lent are:

1- References (encyclopedias, dictionaries, bibliographies, indices, abstracts, annuals, geographical sources, documents)
2- Books not yet submitted in the property book of the library
3- Manuscripts, lithography, and rare books
4- Theses
5- Covered magazines and newspapers, maps, atlases, periodical journals, and journals and books borrowed by the library itself
6- Documents and Visual, auditory, and archived materials
7- Digital sources and computer applications


The Building and the Different Sections of the Library

The library moved to its present building in 1958; its sections are as follows:

The basement :

1- Persian and Arabic books repository
2- English Books repository

Ground floor :

1- Manager's office
2- Journals section
3- Expensive books repository
4- Classification section
5- Acquisition section
6- Information section
7- Iran–Iraq War
8- Farmanfarmayan family

The second floor (Research Hall) :

1- References
2- Theses

The third floor (Torkashvand Hall) :

1- Study
2- Circulation


Activities of the Sections of the Library

1- Acquisition: It is responsible for making and sending lists of books and journals to departments, receiving requests from them, repository, and circulation sections, and then selecting sources, ordering, and purchasing them. It is also responsible for paying the money and following up the missing items in the received shipments.
2- Classification: In this section the received books, according to Dewey system (a Numerical system which has a somewhat philosophical basis and which classifies sciences into 10 categories), are catalogued and classified into 10 categories so that books with similar subjects are put aside and therefore each book be easily retrievable and accessible. This is done both manually and automatically.
3- Repositories: Books are kept in the shelves according to Dewey system. Teachers, in case they need a source, can have access to the repositories. Graduate students, too, have restricted access to this section.

4- Research hall:
  1- Reference section: It consists of general and specialized references such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, catalogues, and important works of many great authors.
 2- Thesis/Dissertation section: Searching the library portal, one can find theses' information and ask the librarian for the thesis.
 

5- Journals Hall: This open-source section consists of Persian, Arabic, and English journals.
Newer and older journals (older ones are bookbinded) can be used by the visitors in the study and in the repository (where they are stored in alphabetical order) respectively.

6- Iran–Iraq War Hall: In this section war books donated by the Farmanfarmayan family and Dr. Najmabadi and books purchased from the late Dr. Farshidvard are kept.
7- Study and Circulation Counter: Visitors, after searching the database, write down the information of the intended books and hand it in to the librarian. The paper containing the information is sent to the repository via the elevator. Once the books are found they are sent to the hall via the same elevator and, after going through the circulation process, are given to the visitors.
8- Expensive Books Section: It contains around 2200 books bought from Alameh Qazvini, Gibb's donations, maps and atlases, some old annuals, lithography and Movable-type works donated by Imam of Friday Prayer of Kerman, large-sized books on archaeology and Iranology, and old journals.
9- Information Section: It helps visitors with research, finding articles etc.


Number of Books

Now the library contains around 300000 books (200000 Persian and Arabic books and 100000 English books) which are kept in Persian and Arabic Repository, English Repository, Expensive Books Section, or Reference Section.

There are around 200 volumes of Persian journals, 48 volumes of Arabic journals, and 56 volumes of English journals.

There are also 4000 MA theses and Ph.D. dissertations and 180 CDs.