The Central Library
The Central Library is currently one of the most well-archieved libraries in humanities in Iran. The library was established by the "Iranian Cultural Foundation" in 1965. But its current structure was formed in 1982 by merging the libraries of some research institutes, including those of the Academy of Literature and Art, Institute for Communication and Development Research, Iranian Cultural Foundation, Shahnameh Foundation and Iranian Center for the Study of Cultures. This library is located in the main building of the Institute, and consists of a collection of over 100 thousand books, about 45 thousand volumes of which are in Persian and Arabic and more than 55 thousand volumes in English, Arabic, French, German, Russian, Urdu, Hindi and other languages. The Central Library has an archive which contains more than 50 thousand versions of Persian and international publications, in the form of 803 Persian journals currently being published and 385 periodical magazines in English, French and Arabic. Moreover, more than 1100 MA and PhD theses and a few photos of precious manuscripts, compact discs and valuable geographical maps (in Latin books) are kept in the library. Some of the books and historical maps available in the library, date back to more than 400 years ago and are published in Latin, English, Old Dutch, German and France.