Regulations for using Tehran University libraries

In the name of God

Due to the need to access scientific resources in advancing the educational and research goals of the University of Tehran and to use more efficiently the resources available in its libraries and provide coordinated library services by focusing on the central library and Documentation and Scientific Resources Center of Tehran University, the regulations for the use of university libraries, along with the instructions and attached forms, which are all an integral part of this regulation, are announced as follows.

Chapter One: Purpose and Generalities

Article 1 - Objective - the objective is to: Explain the conditions for using scientific research resources in the libraries of the University of Tehran and accessing to them, for in-person and remote clients, in line with the university’s educational and research activities, creations and innovations.

Article 2: Libraries of the University of Tehran and its complexes

The libraries of the University of Tehran consist of a central library and libraries of campuses, colleges and affiliated institutions.

1-2 Central Library, Documentation and Scientific Resources Center of the University of Tehran (hereinafter Central Library): A diverse collection of printed books, non-book sources, sequels, manuscripts, historical documents, archival materials and historical photographs, rare manuscripts in printed formats, microforms and electronic sources. These resources are stored in open and closed reserves. The Central Library is responsible for collecting all kinds of resources needed by students, professors and researchers at the university.

2-2 Units’ Libraries:

§ Libraries of campuses, colleges and institutions affiliated to the University of Tehran (hereinafter units), according to educational, research and scientific needs. The unit is responsible for purchasing, collecting, maintaining, organizing and making available the resources needed by the students, professors, researchers and instructors of the departments of that unit.

§ Resources are stored in open / closed reserves according to library policies.

§ There are resources in all libraries (such as reference collections or textbooks of each semester, etc.) that is separated from the collection, its borrowing status (not borrowed, limited, etc.) are specifically defined.

3.2 Types of resources and collections

Types of resources and collections are:

  • Monographs including printed and non-printed book sources
  • Students’ theses and dissertations
  • Periodic and non-periodic sequels
  • Archival materials including manuscripts, periodic documents, historical documents, microfilms, photographs and archival objects;
  • Rare sources include lithographic books and rare printed books
  • Audio and video materials including audio and video tapes, CDs, turntables
  • Non-book geographical resources including maps, atlases and globes
  • Electronic and digital resources including books, articles, dissertations, journals, reports, encyclopedias, etc.
  • Others

 4-2 Use of resources

2-4-1 Lending resources

2.4.1 Lending status of central library resources and units includes the following types, which are summarized in Table 1:

  • Lending: Resources are lent to membership groups - in accordance with the same regulations.
  • On-site lending: The resource can be used only at the library and can be copied and duplicated according to library regulations.
  • Limited Lending: This type of lending is defined in special conditions in units in such a way that for one or more days, the source is out of the normal lending cycle and is lent with a time limit.
  • Cannot be lent: Resources are not lent according to the library’s work policy and can only be used at the library and they are copied according to the rules of the library.
  • Printed books whose publication date is before 1978, are among the books that are not lent.

Table 1: Lending status of library resources

Source

Lending

On-site lending

Limited lending

Cannot be lent

Descriptions

Monographs

+

+

+

+
  • Lending is possible based on article 7 of the same regulation at in-person request.
  • Renewal and reservation is also possible remotely.
  • Limited lending in units is possible.

Thesis and dissertation

 

 

 

+
  • According to paragraph 2-4-2 of this regulation, it is possible to copy it.
  • Colleges are obliged to receive a printed copy of theses both for “holding” and “on-site lending” from students, in addition to receiving an electronic copy.

Sequels

 

 

 

 

It should be noted that sometimes some publications are loaned to the central library management for a certain period of time in order to prepare a copy of it in the unit libraries or to participate in special exhibitions within the university, by observing the rules and submitting an application.

Archival materials

 

 

 

+

 

Audio and video materials

 

 

 

+

 

Geographical resources

 

 

 

+

 

Electronic and digital resources

 

 

 

+

 

Audio books (blinds)

-

-

-

-

 

Databases

-

-

-

-

There is a possibility of access to resources through the network (inside and outside of the university).

2-4-2 Use of electronic and digital resources

The use of electronic and digital resources is in accordance with Table 2, and members can access to it according to Table 3.

Table 2: Use of electronic and digital resources

Electronic/digital resources

Conditions

Books

Production, distribution and use are permitted in accordance with university regulations.

Lithographic books

Production, distribution and use are permitted in accordance with university regulations.

Theses and dissertations

Production, distribution and use are permitted in accordance with university regulations.

Sequels

Production, distribution and use are permitted in accordance with university regulations.

Manuscripts

Production, distribution and use are permitted in accordance with university regulations.

Archival materials

Production, distribution and use are permitted in accordance with university regulations.

Audio and video materials

Production, distribution and use are permitted in accordance with university regulations.

Geographical resources

Production, distribution and use are permitted in accordance with university regulations.

Digital born resources

Production, distribution and use are permitted in accordance with university regulations.

Audio books

It is possible for the blind to produce and use audio resources free of charge in accordance with the Moroccan Convention. It can be downloaded at http://blind.ut.ac.ir

Databases

The use and utilization of digital resources is possible through the university network in compliance with the "official laws of the country" and "the provisions of the contracts of electronic resources”. In case of unauthorized activity - systematic download, student account sharing, unusual reproduction, resource sale, etc., - the offending person(s) are required by law to pay all damages to the university.

Treaty on Facilitating Access to Printed Papers for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Other Reading Disable Persons or the Morocco Convention has been ratified with the aim of prescribing the free use of literary and artistic works for a section of the disabled community.

Contracts between the publisher and the University of Tehran

Table 3: Access to electronic and digital resources for members

 

 

              Member

Accessibility to digital resources

Sequels

Databases

Theses

Manuscripts – historical documents

Printed books

Archival materials, photos, slides, etc.

Faculty members

Access with central identity authentication

PhD students

Graduate students

Undergraduate students

Tehran University staff (formal and contractual)

Temporary identity: Postdoctoral students and adjacent and guest professors, and students applying for study opportunities etc.

Access with temporary identity

Formal letter

Guest

 

Free access (guest) – with tariff

Students from universities other than University of Tehran

Based on Memorandum of Understanding

Provisional identity under the Memorandum of Understanding

Graduates

Inter-network access

4 Graduates who are engaged in research work with faculty members can request a one-year temporary access application by submitting an official letter from the adjacent professor.

5 In the form of a memorandum of understanding, the introduced person with a temporary identity will become a member of the library, with a temporary identity and will be able to access the network by receiving the guest code.

It is necessary to observe the following rules:

  • Official members of the University of Tehran, who can access the network with central authentication, are allowed to download without restriction by paying a fee according to the tariff table.
  • Other people have access as guests and can have authorized downloads after paying according to the guest tariffs.
  • In order to use the downloaded resources, it is necessary for the guest members to mention the name of the University of Tehran as the source of obtaining the source.
  • According to the “Regulations on registration and dissemination of proposals, dissertations and theses of postgraduate education and protection of the rights of creators in them” which is approved by the Minister of Science, Research and Technology in six chapters and 18 articles on 26/11/2016 and its implementation is required from the date of notification, dissertations are available to users that two years have passed since the date of its defense. Otherwise, only the first 30 pages can be viewed and downloaded. In order to read other pages, it is necessary to visit in person.
  • Graduates have access to resources from within the university network.

Chapter Two: Membership

Article 3 - Members

Library members and their membership methods are defined according to Table 4.

Table 4: Members and their membership method

Member

Conditions

Required documents

Membership method

Duration of membership

Descriptions

Faculty member

Full time – part time

Personnel system

Student

All grades – University of Tehran

Education system

Personnel

Formal, contractual, certain contract

Personnel system

Temporary identity members

Affiliated and guest professors, study opportunity students, based on memorandum of understanding

Official letter

Administrative automation or in-person referral

They can only have on site lending, but as soon as there was a possibility of settlement through education, it can be lent

Officers

Personnel documents

Administrative automation – in-person referral

Postdoctoral

Education-related documents

In-person referral

Graduates

All grades

Graduation card and receipt

In-person referral

50% discount compared to free membership.

They can only borrow at site.

Retireds

Faculty members and personnel

Retirement card

In-person referral

They can only borrow on site.

Student – letter of understanding

University of medical sciences

Student card

In-person referral

Just like students of Tehran University, they can borrow books.

Public – letter of understanding

Letter of understanding
  • Letter of understanding
  • Valid ID card
  • Filling in membership form
  • Two photos
  • Receipt of membership fee

 In-person referral

According to the letter of understanding

Paying costs according to the letter of understanding

They can only borrow in library

Public

Master’s and doctoral graduate, writer, researcher, author

+

Members with temporary identity (subject of paragraph one of the forty-second meeting of the Board of the University of Tehran, dated 15/02/2016, including researchers, adjacent professors, students applying for study opportunities, guest professors).

Chapter Three: Book Borrowing

Article 4 - Borrowing books

Borrowing books from the libraries of the University of Tehran is permissible in accordance with the rules of this regulation - in accordance with Table 5.

Table 5: Borrowing books

Member

Central library

College/institution library

Interlibrary loan

Total number of resource

Duration of loan

Renewal

Loan at the site of library

Faculty members

3

5

3

11

4 weeks

3 times

Library unit 6 – central 3

PhD students

3

5

2

10

4 weeks

3 times

Master’s students

3

5

2

9

3 weeks

3 times

Library unit 5 – central 3

Graduate students

2

3

2

7

2 weeks

2 times

Library unit 4 – central 2

Tehran University personnel (formal, contractual, etc.,)

3

3

2

8

2 weeks

2 times

Library unit 3 – central 2

Temporary identity

                                                   -

Only loan at site – central 2- variable unit

Officers

2

2

-

4

2 weeks

2 times

Library unit 2 – central 2

Postdoctoral

3

3

-

6

2 weeks

2 times

Library unit 3, central 3

Public

                    -

Only loan at site – central 3 – variable unit

Students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences

         According to students of University of Tehran

Graduates

                                      -

Only loan at site – central 3 – variable unit

Note: Students living in the campus of the University of Tehran and students of dormitories that are allowed to enter the campus, in addition to the quotas announced in the table above, can borrow 2 books from the library of the campus for 2 weeks.

1. Temporary identity members have currently borrowing at the site, the number of which may vary per unit, but as soon as the settlement problem is resolved, they can also borrow the book, the number and duration of which will change later.

Note 1: Any time that the adjacent and invited professors, students applying for study opportunities, foreign students and language learners can receive a settlement from libraries at the end of their work period from a reference in the university, they are defined in the above table and can borrow books from the library, otherwise their use of library will be only on site.

Note 2: Continuing master’s degree students in the first four years are equivalent to undergraduate students, and during the fifth year and above are equivalent to master’s students. Therefore, they will be given a book in each period according to the table above.

Note 3: Book lending conditions (number and time) in different academic levels for blind students are considered twice as much as other students.

Article 5 - Limited and pre-application lending terms

1-5 Limited Lending:

In the case of those library resources that are introduced by professors as educational and research resources and the request for borrowing them is more than the usual, the library can remove the copy or copies of the book from the main collection of the library during the semester and transfer it to the limited loan department, to be provided to clients in one of the following ways:

 1-1-5 Lending for a limited time and less than the lending time based on the decision of the library and adjusting the amount of lending of that copy or copies in the software.

 2-1-5 Lending at the library and registering the lending on an hourly basis in the software

3-1-5 The books subject to paragraph 5-1-2 that are for on-site study can be lent at the last working hours of the library, provided that they are returned to the library lending department at the first working hours of the library the next day.

Note: Despite the possibility of recording the event in the software for one night, if the library deems it necessary, can keep a valid ID card for borrowing such resources.

 2-5 pre-request (reservation)

1-2-5 Members can, if necessary, request a book that is on loan in advance so that the book can be delivered to them upon return to the library.

2.2.5 Members may renew the book on loan in person or by telephone if not previously requested. Otherwise, they are obliged to return the book to the library.

3-2-5 The library is obliged to inform the applicant about the arrival of the requested book to the library by e-mail or SMS. If the applicant does not refer, the library is obliged to keep the requested book for 48 hours after the date set for the applicant, and after the deadline, the library can provide the stored book to another applicant.

 Article 6 - Penalty for delay in returning the book

1-6 The borrower is obliged to return the book to the library at the date specified in the loan sheet. The library is obliged to inform people about delays in various ways and using modern technologies.

2-6 If the borrowed book is not returned in due time, a fine will be calculated and taken based on the table in Annex 1 of this regulation. The annex table is updated annually and before the beginning of the academic year (mid-September) by the Coordinating Council of University Libraries and its prices are updated.

 3.6 Members with a delay in returning the book will be deprived of borrowing other resources unless they pay the fine.

 1-3-6 At the end of each semester, the names of students who have not returned the borrowed books will be announced to the education department of the relevant faculty to refuse their registration. In addition to the penalty for delayed payment, this group of borrowers will be deprived of membership in the library for one semester, and in case of repetition, the library council will decide about it and will notify other university libraries.

2-3-6 In case the employees or faculty members refuse to pay the delayed penalty, at the end of each year, the administrative and financial deputy of the relevant faculty or unit will be notified to be deducted from their receipts.

 4-6 Special cases of fines are handled by the council of each library.

Article 7 - Compensation for the damage to the book

1-7 The borrower is responsible for preserving the books and other borrowed materials in every way.

 2-7 Borrowers and users of library resources in case of damage, distortion and loss of resources or removal of any information from them (in the form of tearing, underlining, separating papers and images of written sources or deleting information from audiovisual tapes and computer software are required to compensate based on the opinion of the library expert.

3-7 If the member loses a book, he/she is obliged to buy the same book and return it to the library and pay the fine for late payment.

4-7 If the book is rare and it is not possible to buy it, the borrower is obliged to pay the price of the book and the related expenses to that library or the lending unit based on the opinion of the library expert.

5-7 If the member removes a book that has not been borrowed from the library or archive in any way without permission and performing the necessary formalities, for the first time the offender will be punished with a warning and closing the membership card for two weeks, and registration of a warning in his membership file, and in case of repetition, his membership card will be invalidated and will be reported for legal action.

 6-7 Giving others the library membership card is against the rules, and if a member gives his card to others, his membership card will be suspended for 2 months, and in case of repetition, his membership will be canceled.

Chapter 4: Observance and Protection of International Intellectual Property Rights of Electronic and Digital Resources

Article 8: Concepts and goals

8.1 Objective: Respect for copyright and reproduction of electronic and digital resources in the libraries of the University of Tehran.

 2-8 Definition: Production, dissemination, use and utilization of electronic and digital resources in compliance with the “laws and copyrights” and “provisions of databases and electronic and digital resources” is possible for all resources available through University libraries and information networks. And in case of unauthorized activity, they will be dealt with according to the regulations.

3-8 Digital library content includes:

1-3-8 Information resources in electronic format (text, audio, image, video, etc.), some of which may be purchased commercially from publishers and suppliers of resources and databases.

 2-3-8 Electronic samples of printed resources available in libraries, which can be books, magazines and audio-visual resources, manuscripts, maps, etc.

3-3-8 High quality and unique information resources that are available through the Internet or even belong to a collection of other libraries on the web.

8-4 Users: All members of the library

Article 9: The right of access to electronic and digital resources

The use of the resources purchased through the digital library of the University of Tehran is reserved for the users of the University of Tehran to meet their research, educational and personal study needs. The users of this university are not allowed to provide their password and access to other unauthorized persons and are obliged to legal use of it.

Article 10: Reproduction of copyrighted resources

The Digital Library of the University of Tehran and its users do not have the right to republish copyrighted resources without the permission of the owner(s). Copying part of a book for personal training is permitted, but copying a book in its entirety or printing a source is prohibited.

Article 11: Distribution and lending of electronic and digital resources

The University has the right to distribute and lend resources for non-commercial purposes and complies with international law to do so and commercial use of these resources in any form is prohibited. According to the contracts of databases, etc., users are not allowed to send resources or parts of them to social networks, sell and download resources continuously or republish, redistribute or upload resources to other websites.

Article 12: Disciplinary rules for dealing with violations

In case of reporting by any publishers or owners of resources or observing any unauthorized use of information resources, user access will be cut off and this issue will be notified to them via e-mail.

Chapter 5: Settlement and other items

Article 13- Settlement

1-9 All students of the University of Tehran are obliged to settle from the central library and the unit libraries upon graduation.

 2-9 All students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences are required to settle from the central library upon graduation.

 3-9 Guest students who have become members of the library are obliged to settle with the central library and the unit libraries at the end of the contract period. University education is required to receive settlement from these individuals.

 4-9 Full-time faculty members of the university in case of permanent or temporary dismissal, i.e. resignation, transfer, scientific mission, study opportunity and leave for more than one year, and employees in case of resignation, transfer, administrative mission, retirement or leave for more than 3 months are obliged to settle and the personnel department of the university is obliged to control the debts of the faculty members and staff in times of temporary and permanent separation from the university.

Note: Postdoctoral students include paragraph 9-1.

Note: If the fine of the person requesting the settlement is less than 1000 Tomans, the system will be able to settle the account.

Article 14- Other cases

The Library Coordination Council is responsible for decisions in other unforeseen cases.

This by-law was approved in five chapters of 14 articles, 34 paragraphs, 10 notes, one point and two appendices in the one hundred and ninth session of the Coordination Council of the University of Tehran on 01/07/2019, at the Central Library and from this date shall enter into force and replace all previous bylaws in the complex of libraries of the University of Tehran.

                                                               Dr. Rasoul Jafarian

Head of the Central Library and Documentation Center

                                                             University of Tehran

 

Appendix One

Tariffs for fines for the academic year 2018-19

  1. From the first to the third day, 1000 Rials every day
  2. From the fourth to the sixth day, every day is equal to 2000 Rials (in cases of more than 3 days, the first 3 days are also calculated 2000 Rials per day)
  3. From the seventh to the tenth day, every day is equal to 3000 Rials (in case of more than 6 days, the first 6 days are also calculated 3000 Rials every day)
  4. In delays of more than 10 days, the membership card of the person is temporarily blocked until the full settlement.

Note: No penalty is calculated for holidays.

Appendix Two

Due to the high number of applicants and limited space, free membership for non-university students in Tehran is as follows:

Table 1. Membership fee for master’s and doctoral students from universities other than the University of Tehran

Masters’ and doctoral students

Daily

Monthly

3 month

Cost of using on site

5000 Tomans

40000 Tomans

80000 Tomans

Table 2. Membership fee for graduates of the University of Tehran

Graduates from University of Tehran

Daily

Monthly

3 month

Cost of using on site (with 40% discount)

5000 Tomans

24000 Tomans

48000 Tomans

Table 3. The cost of membership for researchers with an Ahle-Qalam card or a written book

Researchers with Ahl-e-Qalam card or written books

6 month

1 year

Cost of using on site

115000 Tomans

160000 Tomans

Note 1: The items listed in the above tables are considered for researchers with an Ahl-e-Qalam card with a 20% discount.

Note 2: From the beginning of July to the end of September of each year, all the costs of the above tables have a 30% discount.

 

Appendix Three

According to Article 8 of the Law on the Protection of the Rights of Authors, Researchers and Artists, approved in 1969, the libraries of the University of Tehran are authorized to prepare a digital version of the dissertations available in libraries with the aim of providing services to their members and clients. Libraries will obtain the permit to use dissertations in the framework of meeting the educational and research needs of their members and clients and provide the best services to members. The said permit will not negate the intellectual and material rights of the students preparing the dissertation. Members and clients are required to complete a form related to the author’s intellectual and material rights before using any digital copy of the dissertation.

A copy of the general rules and disciplinary regulations should be made available to the visitors of each library for information on its