Farid Shoolizadeh
There are many big libraries in Tehran. The Parliament library, the National Library, Library of the Human sciences Research Centre, compared to Yeganegi Library may be more complete for research and studies, but I love this old corner.
From the last week of the month of Day 1387 (January 2009) upto dte, I have been spending every day of the week, and 6 hours every day, in this library (after its recent renovation) and during these past few months I have gone through most of the books in the shelves (English and Farsi). I have noted some facts ab out the state of the books of this library, which I deem necessary to write about here.
We can divide the books in this library into three groups. The first comprises books that are not reprinted any more, and were accessible at a certain period of time. These are now old and worn out and they are not available in the market any more, so can never be replaced. This group of books (they may be in Latin, gujrati or farsi), though needing immediate attention for preservation, certainly add to the intellectual value of this library. I found about 50% of the books of this library to be in this category. The second group comprises a huge volume of lithographic prints and old copies of books, and their condition is such that it is not possible to make use ofmost of them. If immediate steps are not taken for a thorough reparation and if the books are not restored according to new methods of reparation of ancient and worn out texts, in the next few years not much will be left of this priceless treasure. The third group are books that are being reprinted at this period of time and with view to the worn out condition of most of the books of Yeganegi library, it is necessary that at least in the subjects of Zoroastrian religion, Pahlavi and Avesta scripts, new copies are purchased and also the average life time of the books in the library are reduced.
Unfortunately, this is a sad fact that even in its specialized field, which is study of Zoroastrian religion, knowledge of Avesta and Pahlavi scripts, Yeganegi Library does not have much to present to its visitors. If you step into the Library unaware, or like 96% of the people of Iran, have nothing to do with books, when visiting this library you will see a few shelves there, full of worn out books. But if you are among the 4% whose minds are focused on research and study, if you spend your life doing research on the global insight of Zoroastrian religion and on the holy text of Avesta; in short, if you are working in the specialized field of the Zoroastrian religion, by looking at the shelves you will find out that a lot of your shortages in this same field of study are available in this Library. The least that is expected of this Library is that when referring to it one may find all the existing translation of Gathas, translation of Avesta and Pahlavi texts on the shelves of the most specialized library of the Zoroastrian community.
The process of complete and comprehensive renovation of Yeganegi Library, new arrangements of the shelves and registering of the books in the computer, at the same time reparation and restoration of some of the books by the expert staff of the Library, sending some of the old books to the Centre for Restoration of the Parliament Library, for restoration, removing fungus and scanning of the old editions,( which due to the high cost and the meek budget of the Library, is presently slow) is a process that can be seen in Yeganegi Library these days.
Influentials of the Zoroastrian community and those who have executive posts in this community should know that firm cultural grounds and thought based policies are pillars that will give constancy and stability to a nation all through its history. Learned thinkers and noble men springing from such a society are the means of cultural stability and constancy, but in the course of time and in different generations, their appearance has direct link with the bed that is created for their advent. One of the powerful tools that cause the dehiscence of talents hidden in this generation is to renew friendship between the youth and books, book reading and library. But the question is that do we have a comprehensive and a well kept and updated Library to encourage the Zoroastrian youth to refer to. How do we want to cultivate love for our culture, thinking on basis of our religion, and creating religious self-confidence among the youth of our community when our library has nothing to present? If now that the Book Fair is on, it wasn’t for the very small (200,000 tomans) donation, would we ever visit the Book Fair to buy a few books, and that even under conditions that the high prices of books have turned them into luxe items, for Yeganegi Library?
I request the respected Tehran Zoroastrian Anjuman, Dr Khosraviani, De Esfandiar Ekhtiari, the Zoroastrian MP and the noble men and donors of our community to become more sensitive towards upgrading cultural affairs in the Zoroastrian community and consider renovation and restoration of the books of the only public library of the Zoroastrians in Tehran more seriously.
Unfortunately, many Zoroastrian institutes and organizations, in the name of library, have accumulated huge number of books by spending large amount of funds, in their buildings and archived them: books that are practically not used. My request is to gift them to Yeganegi Library.
I hereby express my appreciation and let’s not forget that a lot of work is not performed under instructions, sanctions and laws. Sometimes, one should be a lover to succeed in performing some work. Yeganegi Libraray gives one the feeling of deep love.
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