ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 44 | April 2000
The Farsi collection
The National Library has a small collection of books in Farsi, the national language of Iran. The collection consists mainly of works received by the Library in the 1960s and 1970s. Through the services of a library volunteer, this collection has now been listed in a booklet designed to help Farsi speakers discover and use the collection.
The booklet lists the entire collection of nearly 800 items and is arranged by subject, with subject headings including history, literature, religion, law, medicine and many others. Each entry is in the graceful and elegant Farsi script. Copies of the booklet are available from The Director, Technical Services Branch, National Library of Australia, Canberra ACT 2600.
The Library is hoping to put these entries onto the National Bibliographic Database and into its own online catalogue, but will first need to romanise the entries. The project is a successful example of cooperation between the Library and the local ACT community through the National Librarys Library Volunteer Scheme.
An example of Farsi calligraphy, from a text of the poetry of Hafiz of Shiraz (fourteenth century)
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: tford@nla.gov.au