A Structural and Content Review of Policies for Services and Access to the Manuscript Section in Iran's Libraries

Policies applied by every institution or organization identify strategies for their activities and make the employees aware of the scope of their duties and powers. In each policy, there are some standards and elements which are affected by the activities, goals and duties of the related institutions or organizations. This study aimed to identify the present criteria and elements of policies in accessing the manuscript sections in Iran’s libraries and to analyze the perspectives of the creators of these policies. Design/ Methodology/Approach: In this research, the method of qualitative content analysis is applied to analyze the policy of services and access to the manuscript section of in Iran’s libraries. There are nine elements in manuscript services and access policies in Iran’s libraries. Each element contains different categories and subcategories. Having only four elements, the Central library of the University of Tehran had the lowest number of elements and criteria, while the National Library of Iran has all of the identified elements and criteria. This study concluded that each element had different levels of importance in different policies. Based on the findings, two elements i.e. providing resources and services to clients, and the conditions and specifications of the clients were the most important and basic elements in determining the policies. These two elements are considered in all of the presently compiled policies.