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Persian e-Books and Virtual Libraries
By Majid Rohbani
book@tehranavenue.com
August 2004
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e-Books, digital and virtual libraries are a relatively new phenomena which have seized the attention of enthusiasts and propounded serious discussions. An e-book is a digital version of a written work, be it published in hard copy or not.

Stored information in e-books is ready for presentation and publishing. Publication is in the form of a CD-ROM or on the World Wide Web. The advantages of e-books are not limited to presenting written works, but sometimes include, in addition to the text, images, sound, etc. and can make up a multimedia series. Digital and virtual libraries are where digital books are housed and offered. Often, the two terms are used to describe the same thing even though they are different. A digital library is one where various sources and services such as books, materials, and human resources are available at a physical location.  It also offers the regular services of housing books and libraries by using digital technology and of course offering a part of these services on the Web. But a virtual library is a library without a physical location and without books; its sources are only available on the web and it offers all its services through this medium. A lot has been said about e-books, digital and virtual libraries. Many arguments, both for and against, have been made about digital libraries and electronic books and much has been said regarding the future of this new phenomenon with both optimism and skepticism. I won't repeat those arguments here.

But what can be plainly seen today is the boom in e-books and the rapid growth and expansion of Iranian virtual libraries. The speed of development in this field is eye-catching enough for one to be able to comment about the phenomenon of the appearance of the Farsi language and of course Iranian books on the Web.  In order to introduce a part of the world of digital books, first an English language virtual library has been selected and then Iranian libraries on the web are discussed. Although this article cannot be complete, because it would necessarily fail to mention a good number of mainly political e-books, it nonetheless may serve as a guide to available literary works on-line.

Project Gutenberg2

Project Gutenberg started many years ago with the goal of transforming paper books into digital ones and, eventually, making them freely available on the World Wide Web. Currently, the complete text of over twenty thousand titles of English books is available in the virtual library of Project Gutenberg and is updated on a daily basis. In order to have an idea of the daily growth of this compilation, one can consider that in one day alone (7 June 2004) 34 new books were added to this Library and the following day 6 other titles followed. Visitors to the library can search for their required books on the basis of title, author, and subject. The organization of the books has taken shape based on the classification system used by the Library of Congress with the following subject headings: general, philosophy, psychology, religion, history, geography, social science, political science, law, education, music, art, language, literature and rhetoric, science, medicine, agriculture, technology, marine sciences, military sciences, bibliography and library science.

In the Gutenberg virtual library several sub-indexes can also be seen, including the quite massive index of books whose copyright ownership will soon expire (making it possible to place them on the Internet). Next to each title, the exact expiry date of its copyright, including the day, month, and year has been sited. This index is made up of close to a thousand titles. Another index contains the list of titles that are in the process of being added (being typed) and consists of a few hundred titles. A similar index contains the suggested titles of the administrators of Project Gutenberg, which invites those interested to type them and make them available to the library. It is noteworthy to mention that the work of Project Gutenberg is carried out on a voluntary basis; those interested in placing a book on WWW contact the site administrators and with their coordination prepare that book in a specified format.

In addition to books prepared within the framework of the project, Gutenberg virtual library also enters books that have been made freely available on the Web, of course citing their sources accurately. The final point that must be made about this site is its simple design and layout. The very simple and unembellished appearance of this site is the reason for its ease of operation and also the speed with which the users can open pages and conduct searches.

Persian Libraries on the Web

Not much time has passed since the formation of Persian libraries on the Net. Still, this phenomenon like all the other phenomena of the age of the digital revolution, is growing and expanding rapidly. Many such libraries have formed on Internet sites and many are weblogs created for this purpose. If we set aside the Internet sites of several digital libraries, then the rest must be considered virtual libraries. One of the unique features of these libraries is that none have a direct commercial capacity; they do not charge a fee for the use of their compilation. If we do not consider the few libraries with unique beliefs and political inclinations, then the rest have tried to take a neutral position, which is a key factor in providing information and librarianship and in avoiding actions based on their own tastes and preferences. As a result, many of their compilations consist of all kinds of digital books available on the Web.

From the explanation of some libraries, it seems that they are the result of the ingenuity and time spent by interested youth who have taken the initiative on their own and  joined by others, have gradually put together such compilations. In these libraries, which are usually in the form of weblogs, the emails of the visitors and the explanatory notes of the owners of the weblogs can be used to trace the formation of these libraries. An important and promising feature of these libraries is their independence and spontaneity; it is also the reason for much delight – government agencies and their subversive support have not yet found their way to this field.

Some of these libraries have themselves set at the task of typing the books and placing them on the Web. Many others only gather books already available on the Web and categorize them into subjects using their own tastes and judgment. Some site their sources and others don't. At any rate, this final feature is the reason why these compilations have many similarities and sometimes even seem the same. The subject categorization of most of the libraries also has some major flaws and it is obvious that in this task the knowledge of library science is not used. These flaws are not only caused by a lack of standard procedure. Even under their own peculiar organization some of the books cannot be found in the right place. Another problem in many of the virtual libraries is that the index of the books only contains the titles of the books without ever citing the name of the author or the translator. As a result in the instances when the name of a work is not familiar, or that from its title one cannot guess at its contents, the user has no choice but to open the file or files of the book, which can be a waste of time and effort. Further, Persian books available in these libraries are presented in PDF and HTML or ZIP files, the downloading of which though not impossible, might not be without problems.

The materials offered in many of the Persian virtual libraries are not limited to books but include other texts such as stories, articles, archives, and etc. Also available are works that have never come out on print. Lately, many immigrant Persian writers, who for various reasons have not found the means to publish their works in Iran or abroad, have joined the group of virtual libraries and offer their works in their respective sites. And of course the presence of out of print books is part of the appeal of virtual libraries.

Below, are some of these libraries that have been introduced. It is obvious that they are not all the Persian libraries in existence but examples of a growing and expanding phenomenon which alongside the great global changes in this field have taken form in the domain of our language and culture.

A Look at Several Persian Digital and Virtual Libraries

 -Farsi Books On-Line is the name of a weblog that has gathered possibly the most complete and detailed index of Persian e-books available on the Web. The goal of the blog managers has been to index whatever Persian books available on the Web (with the exception of anti-religious and anti-regime books) for these two groups of books would ultimately prevent him from continuing in this endeavor.

Subject organization of the books is unprofessional and incomplete and no search engine is available – a big disadvantage for such a relatively complete compilation of books. The site features a mailing list and informs its recipients of a monthly list of released titles. The list of books being prepared can also be seen on the weblog along with an announcement for those interested to voluntarily type 20 pages of a book. Unfortunately,  this library has not offered a count of its compilation but with a brief examination it can be perceived that hundreds of book titles under categories such as history, poetry, religious books, computer education, and books for children and young adults have been indexed.

- The site www.sare2008.com contains a compilation similar to www.farsibooksonline.blogspot.com and has links to the books available on the Internet. This site does not have a search engine either.

- The Banitak Internet site at has a digital library, which contains a small collection of classic and contemporary Persian literature. They do not use the books available on other sites or on the Internet and make their own selections using books written by authors who have been dead for at least thirty years and do not fall under copyright laws. They've asked volunteers to submit such works of literature and also to note any spelling mistakes.

- According to its banner, the virtual library www.ketabkhaneh.i8.com is affiliated with the "Nights without Dawn" weblog and has brought together a collection of about 200 books and short stories of contemporary Persian and world literature.

- www.avayeazad.com offers a detailed collection of works by both renowned and less known poets. Audio files of several poets are also available on this site.

- Managed by Seyyed Reza Shokrollahi, www.khabgard.com offers a limited number of books (no more than 25) in two sections of "Library" and "Anticensorship." The authors themselves have sent the books in the former category and in the latter, censored segments of books and complete texts of books which have not been published or are rare and out of print can be found.

- Davat Library is expat writer Reza Ghassemi's website containing close to seventy titles by contemporary authors from both Iran and other countries.

- www.sokhan.com not only offers on-line books by Iranian authors but also operates as an electronic book store. It intends to gradually make available eighty short stories from the past eighty years of Iranian literature. Books offered on this site have all been published in Iran and do not include works by Iranian authors living abroad.

- The Hermes Library is a weblog that has introduced itself as a "human science library." It is managed by Mojtaba Zoqi. Books are introduced under the title "Book of the Month" and other books are available through links with other sites.

- www.goftman.com has compiled a series of Anton Chekhov's short stories translated into Persian by the late Seruj Estepanian and published by Toos. It intends to gradually add more titles to this group.

- www.Irantarikh.com is a site managed by Dr. Amir Hossein Khanji, and contains articles on history and the complete texts of a few books including The History of Iran: from the Earliest Era to 628 AD.

- www.al-shia.com contains a library which houses close to 200 books categorized under various subjects related to religion and religious studies. It boasts a search engine and is affiliated with Ayatollah Sistani's office.

- www.howzeh.net is also a library containing close to 100 books categorized under various subjects related to religion and religious studies and features a search engine.

- The Imam Ali Internet site contains a library with two indexes of tiles and 26 authors.

- A small library containing the articles by Dr. Hossein Elahi Qomshei can be found at www.best4u.tk and houses the Persian translation of the Koran and poetry by renowned Iranian poets and intends to add holy books of other religions to its compilations.

- The Marxist Archives on the Internet at www.marxists.org/farsi is part of a large Internet site offering the ideas of Marxist thinkers in various languages including Persian. This site does not feature a search engine.

- Digital Library houses books and text books in various subjects. Unfortunately, other than the title of the books not much information is offered in the index.

- www.e-bookpars.com is similar to Digital Library with the exception that it provides more information on the titles.

- www.olomrayane.50megs.com is a library containing books on all subjects.

- Amir Arsalan contains the complete text of the book Amir Arslan Namdar. Though not a virtual library, this site displays a fine example of an Iranian e-book. The possibility to change the color of the pages and bookmark the last page read are among its features. Included are an index of characters and chapters. An unfortunate downfall is the lack of images usually affiliated with this story in the traditional printed versions. The library promises the addition of more books in the future.

Exclusive Internet sites of Iranian writers and poets are where digital books are available on the Internet and supply virtual and digital libraries with books.

- Mention should be made of the efforts made by Persian speaking Afghanis. The Internet site Ariaye at www.ariaye.com contains a library, which except for two titles is a selection of Persian books from www.farsibooksonline.blogspot.com.

- Del Abad library is a weblog belonging to Javad Mansour Popal. It also offers a selection from www.farsibooksonline.blogspot.com.

- Other than the aforementioned libraries, the mass of weblogs, each active in their own way, must be mentioned. Of course they cannot be considered libraries for there are mainly private and personal sites offering a miscellany of contents chosen and preferred by their managers. Naturally, the visitors to such sites are few and often the friends and family of the site's owner.

In conclusion, it is important to remember that despite the issues facing Internet users in Iran, Persian virtual libraries are rapidly growing and expanding. Disadvantages such as the slow speed of the Internet have not been able to hinder the course of this phenomenon. Currently, the total number of Persian e-books available on the Internet is in the hundreds and it will take time for this number to reach into the thousands. However, with the speed at which this trend is growing, we will no doubt be able to site thousands of titles of Persian books on the Web. Further, the role of virtual libraries in the expansion of the Persian language and the infiltration of Persian books in neighboring societies where Persian is spoken is a subject deserving of a serious discussion.

Supposedly the main feature of global information superhighways is fast, easy, inexpensive, and unobstructed access to information. Despite this, several governments including that of Iran have taken expurgation measures against the Net. Apparently,  virtual libraries have not remained unaffected by the increasing wave of this expurgation or "filtering," which those in charge call their task. Witness to this claim is a library that offers a compilation almost similar to that offered on farsibooksonline.com and until recently was available but no longer is. This is while a brief examination shows that from among hundreds of Persian book titles available on the Internet, the emphasis is on books from two areas of literature and religion (religious Shia texts) and in comparison political books on the whole, and more specifically books on political opposition, make up an extremely small and trivial segment.

A short while ago, head of the Data Company, Iran's Internet custodian, announced in an interview that thus far the telecommunications company has spent over 70 billion rials (€70 million) on filtering Internet sites but has not been able to completely reach its desired results.3

One must wait and see what share of such hefty budgets will in the future go to expanding digital and virtual Persian libraries.

Footnotes

1/ Further Reading:

Abdol Hossein Azarang, "e-Book and p-Book", Jahan-e-Ketab, p 7 Nos. 21-24, (Esfand 1381-Farvardin 1382).

Tahereh Taheri, "The National Library: Digital or Traditional", Ketab Quarterly, Volume 13, No. 4, (Winter 1381).

Keyvan Koosha, "Forsat-ha va chalesh-ha-ye nashr-e ketab dar mohit-e shabakeh" ("Opportunities and challenges in publishing in the World Wide Web"), Ketab Quarterly, Volume 14, No. 1, (Spring 1382).

Mehrdad Neeknam, "e-Book", Ketab Quarterly, Volume 14, No. 1, (Spring 1382).

Mark Herring, "Ten Reasons Why the Internet will not Replace the Library", translated by Simin Niyazi, Ketab Quarterly, Volume 13, No. 3, (Autumn 1381).

2/ Project Gutenberg

The establishment of Project Gutenberg dates back to the 1970s when it began its work by transforming the literary texts of books without copy right into e-books. Years later these books gradually were placed on the Web. To see the compilation of books in the Project Gutenberg see:

www.digital.library.upenn.edu

The University of Pennsylvania supports this Internet base.

3/ www.bbc.co.uk/persian/news



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