Conformity Assessment of the Archival Records Description Elements in the Archives of Iran

This study intended to verify the conformity of the archival records description elements with the National Archival Description Standard.

Method and Research Design:

 Library research and descriptive survey were used to analyze and compare records descriptive elements in the following archives of Iran: Contemporary History Research Institute; The Organization of Libraries, Museums and Documents Center of Astan Quds Razavi; Manuscripts Section of the Central Library and Documentation Center of the University of Tehran; Library, Museum and Documentation Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly; Department of Documents and Diplomacy History of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; National Archives of Iran; and Malek National Library and Museum Institute.

Amongst the twenty-six elements of the National Archival Description Standard, “conditions governing reproduction” and “publication note” were not used in any of the archives. “Level of description”, “archival history”, “appraisal, destruction and scheduling information”, “system of arrangement”, “accruals”, “finding aids”, “related units of description’, “rules or conventions” were only used in the National Archives of Iran, whereas “reference code(s)”, “title”, “date(s)”, “language/scripts of material”, and “archivist’ note and date(s) of description”, were used in all the archives. The rest of the elements were used in some archives. The findings specified thirty-one elements that were amongst description elements of the records according to the archives need and not considered in the National Archival Description Standard. Due to the lack of archival experts in most archives, the standard was not implemented properly and records description were inconsistent.