The status of cataloguing manuscripts in large libraries in Iran ☆ Habibollah Azimi a, ⁎ ,1 , Ayoob Nazi b,2 a National Library and Archives of I.R of Iran b M.S in Library and Information Science of Shahid Beheshti University, I.R of Iran article info abstract Available online 12 August 2011 Complying with accepted standards in any field leads to harmonization with the world. This also applies to manuscript cataloguing; keeping up to standards leads to consistency of catalogues and facilitates the exchange of information and preparation of joint databases at national and international levels. Since there are different standards for cataloguing manuscripts around the world, the common elements of some of these standards have been extracted and a checklist has been prepared on this basis. Therefore this research studies the extent to which the manuscript catalogues in Iran comply with the elements of the checklist derived from the common elements existing in the international rules and standards and the worksheets of some important libraries of Iran and the world. Descriptive survey method is used in this research and the required data were collected through a checklist developed based on available international standards and the history of Iranian cataloguing. Findings showed that the National Library had the highest percentage of compliance with cataloguing standards (58.28%) and Central Library of the University of Tehran had the lowest (38.73%). Catalogues of all studied libraries met an average of 80% of the criteria in the checklist in the bibliography and content analysis part, and 37.5% in the codicology part. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Manuscript cataloguing International principles for manuscript cataloguing Compliance with international standards Manuscript cataloguing in Iran 1. Introduction Manuscripts have always had a prominent and valuable position. In the past, calligraphers, painters and other skilful artists were gathered and employed in courts of different kings, especially the Timurids. 3 The books produced and decorated in courts were so important that kings took pride in them. In the same way, today, manuscript collections have a remarkable role in the reputation and credibility of large and reputable libraries (Khanipoor, 1999). Despite the fact that a countless number of manuscripts have been taken out of Iran's borders, it still has valuable treasuries of manuscripts and holds a prominent position in the world in terms of manuscript collections. Collecting manuscripts and preventing their damage is an admirable act and will in fact prevent the ruin of a nation's culture, civilization and history. But by collecting manuscripts, do we solely aim to preserve them? This is surely not true and our other goal is to utilise this invaluable heritage. We shouldn't allow these treasuries to be neglected; we should rather take necessary measurements to introduce them and make them accessible. From a long time ago, bibliographic information about manuscripts was published as catalogues in order to identify and introduce them and to ultimately achieve the goal of making manuscript collections accessible and usable. Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 35 (2011) 106–117 ☆ This article is abstracted from an LIS M.S. thesis (Student: Ayoob Nazi; Advisor: Dr. Habibollah Azimi). ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: h-azimi@nlai.ir (H. Azimi). 1 ﺍ ﻟ ﻠ ﻪ ﻋ ﻈ ﯿ ﻤ ﯽ ﺣ ﺒ ﯿ ﺐAssistant Professor and Deputy of National Librarian (National Library and Archives of I.R. Iran). 2 ﺍ ﯾ ﻮ ﺏ ﻧ ﺎ ﺯ ﻱ, M.S. of library and information science. 3 ﺗ ﯿ ﻤ ﻮ ﺭ ﯾ ﺎ ﻥ 1464-9055/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.lcats.2011.06.002 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/lcats