فصلنامه گنجینه اسناد
پیاپی 72 (زمستان 1387)

23 historical decrees are kept in the Malek National Museum, 9 of which were published during the Safavid dynasty. These nine decrees contain various decorations which differentiates them from other decrees kept in the museum. Among the decorations used in the decrees, this paper studies seals and royal monograms. Firstly, the different features of the seals, such as their shape, material, size and content, are introduced. In the next part, the description of ten seals with different usages is quoted from an anonymous manuscript. Royal Monograms are introduced in the next section and the characteristics of royal monograms of the Safavid era are discussed. Finally, the properties of the seals and royal monograms of the 9 decrees are described in detail.

In the past, wood was one of the most important trade items between Iran and Russia. Different kinds of trees growing in the north of Iran had an important effect on wood trade during the Qajar dynasty, especially the trade done via the Caspian Sea. In the middle of the Nasseri era, the volume of wood trade significantly increased due to the opening of new sea and land trade routes in the north of Iran. Cassius Brothers and Theophylaktos owned the largest logging concession in the Iranian Caspian forests and had the monopoly of the wood trade of northern Iran for more than two decades. This paper aims to describe Iran’s wood trade by Cassius brothers and Theophylaktos via the Caspian Sea in the Qajar era from 1883 to 1908 according to archival records. Firstly the status of wood trade before the Cassius brothers and Theopylaktos is explained. The article then discusses the granting of the northern forests’ logging concession to them. Finally, the consequences of the concession agreement arc presented

introduces Majlis newspaper as Iran’s first national newspaper, published after the Constitutional Revolution by the first National Consultative Assembly. Different issues are discussed in this article, including: the important role of the newspaper in informing the public of the changes taking place in the Consultative Assembly after it was bombed; the decree issued by Mozaffar al-Din Shah ordering the establishment of the newspaper; the socio-political life of the manager of the newspaper, Mohammad-Sadeq Tabatabaci, the son of Seyyed Mohammad Tabatabaei, known as Sanglaji; and the life of its editor in chief, Adib al-Mamalek Farahani. Different aspects of the newspaper are explained under categories such as: its aim and mission, circulation, subscription fee, methods of exchange, representation, and correspondence. The article also provides a number of discussions which took place inintroduces Majlis newspaper as Iran’s first national newspaper, published after the Constitutional Revolution by the first National Consultative Assembly. Different issues are discussed in this article, including: the important role of the newspaper in informing the public of the changes taking place in the Consultative Assembly after it was bombed; the decree issued by Mozaffar al-Din Shah ordering the establishment of the newspaper; the socio-political life of the manager of the newspaper, Mohammad-Sadeq Tabatabaci, the son of Seyyed Mohammad Tabatabaei, known as Sanglaji; and the life of its editor in chief, Adib al-Mamalek Farahani. Different aspects of the newspaper are explained under categories such as: its aim and mission, circulation, subscription fee, methods of exchange, representation, and correspondence.

This paper begins by introducing a number of decrees issued by Safavid Shahs which were inscribed on stones and displayed in public places such as mosques and bazaars. It then studies four inscriptions of Shah Abass’s decrees which are installed in Shah’s Mosque of Isfahan, Mir- emad Mosque of Kashan, Jame’ Mosque of Ardestan, and Jame’ Mosque of Damavand. This study shows that the decrees of Safavid shahs were issued for different purposes and with various subjects such as: offering tax breaks, victory over Uzbeks, preventing corruption, pro­hibition of selling and using drugs and alcoholic drinks, and restriction on different types of unhealthy leisure activities such as wolf races, gambling and pigeon keeping. Offering special tax breaks to Shiites in Ramadan which is one of the major subjects of these decrees shows the Safavid shah’s religious affiliations.

This article reviews the bylaw of Iran’s National Legislative Council and the responsibility of the government officials which was approved in 1929, during the prime ministry of Mahdi-Qoli Khan Hedayat. The Legislative Council, which was under direct supervision of Reza Shah, was formed as an attempt by the executive to solve the existing problems without getting assistance from laws and the judiciary. According to the bylaw, the heads of government bureaus had to report the behavior of their agents to their superior officials. The bylaw, which discusses the responsibilities of the council, the method for choosing its members and the punishments for the subordinate agents, is introduced in this paper by discussing its first, second and fifth articles. After introducing the bylaw, we briefly discuss the governance of the three neighboring cities, Golpayegan, Kamareh, and Khansar in that era and the disputes that existed in this region. In this paper, we present the full text of the bylaw and the public statement of the legislative council addressing the governor of the three cities, Hossein Heshmat. It is concluded that this bylaw declares the inefficiency of the legislature and the dominance of the executive in handling the existing complaints. It is also mentioned that this informative bylaw aimed to collect information via different methods in order to reinforce the bureaucracy system.

By using content analysis, in this research we studied 63 national archives websites which either English was their default language or had an English version of their website. After the Consultative Assembly and were published in Majlis newspaper, such as fighting against dictatorship and taking loans from other countries. Furthermore, the paper presents two letters which were received by the newspaper officials. Finally, the live-volume book of the Majlis newspaper, republished by the library of the Parliament of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is reviewed.

This research aims to study the extent to w hich the ISO 214 standard is employed in writing the abstracts of the Ganjineh Asnad quarterly. A survey of 54 abstracts show's that 44.5 percent of the abstracts were indicative, 33.33 percent were indicative-informative and only 22.22 percent were informative. Furthermore, the ISO 214 standard has been observed in the informative abstracts more than the indicative abstracts. The research also shows that 83.3 percent of the abstracts of articles in the area of archival studies are in conformity with the ISO 214 standard, while this amount is 64.3 percent in abstracts of historical research articles. The extent to which the ISO 214 standard was observed in all the studied abstracts was 68.51 percent. Finally, the importance of accurate abstracts is emphasized and it is suggested to follow the ISO 214 standard in writing the abstracts.

Information visualization is defined as the use of computer-supported, interactive, visual representations of abstract data to amplify cognition. The application of information visualization techniques in archives can provide faster and better access to useful information. This paper firstly introduces information visualization and explains how it can be useful in archives. It then reviews different types of data sources in terms of their dimension and explains how information visualization can be applied to ID, 2D and 3D data and records. In the next part of the article, some practical information visualization techniques are mentioned. Finally, the paper points out the benefits of information visualization for various archival activities and concludes that information visualization can be effectively used in archives for training, research and professional activities.

Arrangement and description of records and the creation of finding aids are at the heart of all archival work. This article explains the five principles of archival arrangement, levels of arrangement and description, Principle of Provenance, original order, moderate degree of order, and organizational resources. Afterwards, it focuses on the importance of describing the content of archival resources using finding aids. Finding aids are introduced as a means of managerial supervision and archival description and are divided into three categories: internal supervision tools, intra-organizational referential indexes, and extra-organizational referential indexes. The last group is itself divided to calendars, checklists, indexes, and information network systems. Finally the standards for arranging and describing records are discussed.being identified, the content of the websites were downloaded using Webzip. In the next step, the features of the contents and structures of the downloaded national archives websites were extracted and analyzed. Using Microsoft Excel, the frequency of the extracted features were determined and included in a checklist. Similar items were omitted from the checklist and a preliminary attitude survey was conducted among archives experts. Based on findings, 41 important features of the content of the websites and 10 important features of their structure were identified. These features were included in a checklist and distributed among archives experts in order to determine the importance of each item. Among the features, 36 items relating to the content and 7 features relating to the structure of websites were considered more important and chosen for designing the proposed pattern.

The aim of the International Study on the Impact of Copyright Law on Digital Preservation was to review current copyright and related laws and their impact on digital preservation, as well as to make recommendations to help libraries, archives and other preservation institutions sustain digital works. Study partners are based in Australia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. The study found that, in many cases, digital works are not being preserved in a systematic way. This is partly because digital preservation entails more difficult copyright issues than preservation of non-digital material. All the surveyed countries have some form of exception for preservation activities. However, there is inconsistency in the details between the countries’ laws and uncertainty in how they apply in the digital environment. None of the countries surveyed have a uniform national system yet for collecting digital materials. Technological protection measures and licensing arrangements may, in some cases, present significant practical barriers to preservation. Current approaches to address these barriers are ad hoc and include requesting permissions from individual rights holders and some use of model licence terms that permit preservation. Moreover, as yet, there are no effective solutions to the general issue of orphan works. Recommendations of the study include suggestions for drafting national policies and adapting laws to allow digital preservation to be undertaken as necessary, in accordance with international best practice standards, and for promoting national systems for the collection of digital materials by relevant state and national collecting institutions.