Designing and providing Digital Encyclopedia of Sacred Defense

Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2018-10-31

The most important activities of the Center for Studies and Research on Resistance Culture and Literature of Hozeh Honari were explained in annual meeting of head of the Culture and Resistance Offices of Provincial Centers of Hozeh Honari by deputy chairman of the center.

Reported by Iranian Oral History Website, quoted by News Agency of Hozeh Honari Mohsen Ghani Yari, deputy head of the Center for Studies and Research on Resistance Culture and Literature of Hozeh Honari attended in the meeting of officials and experts of provincial center's offices of Resistance Culture and Studies in Anzali, Gilan, while presented the center performance and programs, emphasized availability to first-hand resources for production, compilation and collecting works in this field.

At the beginning of his speech, introducing research capacities of the Center for Studies and Research on Resistance Culture and Literature, and standards and criteria of a good work from perspective of the center, Ghani Yari pointed out a part of activities carried out in recent years and said, "The center had created 49,741 profiles for figures that is an opportunity for researchers. About a thousand of these characters are alive and we have writing from them; that is, these people have had memoirs."

He continued, "In non-Persian section, about 12,000 articles since 1961 onwards have been gathered from foreign press and they have been scanned and researchers can refer to the Center for Studies and Research on Resistance Culture and Literature to use them.

Noting published books about Islamic Revolution and research carried out in the center, he added, "Many books have been written abroad about the revolution. These books and magazines archives have been also collected, which can be referred by researchers. More than 9,000 hours of specialized interviews have been conducted in this part where their audio is available and have been indexed too. These interviews are about the revolution and distinguished first and second grades figures of the revolution. As narrators have conducted these interviews with specific conditions, researchers to use them must refer to the Center for Studies and Research on Resistance Culture and Literature.

Pointing out rich and appropriate resources of specialized libraries of the center, Ghani Yari said, "The Revolution Library has about 20,000 books, which is a great source for experts and researchers. There are about 50 BA, MA and Ph.D. graduates of history of the revolution to help researchers.

The deputy chairman of t the Center for Studies and Research on Resistance Culture and Literature pointed to current projects of the center, and expressed, "A number of projects are being carried out by the center's associates, such as Revolutionary Timeline, the 15 Khordad Timeline, Encyclopedia Specific for Teenagers that 3 volumes of it have been published, Encyclopedia of Political Prison during Pahlavi Era that will be published this year, and Encyclopedia of Imam Khomeini Movement, which is underway.

In his remarks, he referred to lack of attention to research on subjects related to theoretical foundations of the revolution and added, "On theoretical foundations of the revolution; its social, cultural and political foundations, a symposium some articles will be compiled and published in the Center for Studies and Research on Resistance Culture and Literature. Unfortunately, we have poor research in this part, and we have had less a research look at this section.

On conducted interviews, he said, "We had about 3,000 interviews with warriors and the holy defense commanders.

Ghani Yari pointed out current websites of the Center for Studies and Research on Resistance Culture and Literature, and explained, "5 websites have been set up in the Center for Studies that 3 ones are dedicated to oral history, Islamic Revolution and the 15 Khordad Uprising.

The deputy chairman of the Center for Studies and Research on Resistance Culture and Literature announced designing and providing the Digital Encyclopedia of Sacred Defense in the center and said, "There is also a website in English about history of Islamic Revolution that will be unveiled on February February 11. This website has been launched by foreign students from Qom Seminary.

He also commented on entrusting projects to the provincial centers, "We offer research the provinces and advice them. Geography Atlas of Islamic Revolution and Sacred Defense, memories of elite of the revolution and the sacred defense that can be in form of biography and monographs, symposium of research papers, role of strata and guilds in the revolution, place-centered issues such as prominent mosques in the revolution are some of these researches.

At the end of his speech for head of Resistance provincial centers offices, he talked about features of a good book, "A good book is a book with 3 characteristics of correct source, understanding and quote. We must use first-hand resources in our research. We must collect these resources and should not be captured by known sources, as there may be a famous source but not an accurate source for the subject under investigation. Cyberspace is not always an accurate source, because it is not permanent and changes. Unfortunately, sometimes we have a good source, but we do not have a good understand, sometimes we have both understanding and source, but we do not have a good quote. A good book should have good text, introduction, epilogue, appendixes and resources. We must know the audience and use plain writing in books."

The annual specialized meeting of head of Resistance Culture and Studies offices of the provincial centers of Hozeh Honari was hosted by Gilan's Hozeh Honari and effort of the Office for Resistance Culture and Studies of provinces affairs of Hozeh Honari on October 9 and 11, 2018.