Authority control of eminent Ghajarid military and civil people at the National Archives of Iran (NAI)

This paper examines state of authority control of eminent Ghajarid (19th century) military and civil officials at the National Archives of Iran (NAI)، based on the preferences of a panel of experts. Method/Research design: Mixed methodology is applied. Modified classic Delphi technique is used. Data was collected using interviews and questionnaires. At the first step، a sample of 60 names of civil and military officials was listed from a comprehensive collective biography of 19th century eminent Iranians. At the second step، preferences of experts at the NAI about the authorized form of the names were sought and summarized. The first round revealed that preferences of 10 out of 14 members of the panel were different from the form adopted by the National Library of Iran''s Persian Authority File (PAF). Out of 60 most frequently referred names in the sample، 20 were new (not listed in the PAF). Analysis of the second round questionnaire data showed that experts’ preferences in 15 cases were because of rules and reasons different from those stated in the NAI Manual for deciding authorized for the Ghajarid names. In the third round، also، 17 new cases were suggested by the panel members. Findings showed that new elements should be considered when NAI Manual is to be revised.