The library of the Institute of Cultural and Social Studies started its activity in February 2006 with the aim of supporting the research and educational activities of the institute by providing the information requirements of the faculty members, experts and other users and raising the scientific level of the user community in the specialized fields of the institute. Currently, the library's activities include resource selection, provision, organization, and presentation in accordance with the library's long-term goals of becoming a reference point for scientific resources in the institution's study areas. With the start of the library, its management was entrusted to the Research Services Department, and Ms. Esmalizadeh was in charge of the library. The institute's library is currently managed under the supervision of the Research and Education Vice-Chancellor, with Mr. Seyed Ali Fatemi in charge since June 2011.

Objectives and Responsibilities
Collecting scientific resources and disseminating information to strengthen and promote research and educational programs in line with the goals and missions of the institute, providing printed and electronic scientific resources required by the research and educational programs of the institute, organizing resources in order to facilitate the access of clients, guiding clients to find the required information sources and provide reference services, apply automatic systems in librarianship and information to speed up the storage and retrieval of information and help the clients to perform their tasks, communicate with similar centers inside and outside the country for the purpose of interlibrary cooperation; creation of convenient conditions for study and research;  strengthening reference sources and non-print materials, introducing new and emergent information sources.

Services
The books available in the library are mostly about the study areas of the 9 specialized groups of the institute. They include Cultural Studies, Social Studies, Future Studies, Women's Studies, Science and Technology Studies, Communication and Virtual Space Studies, Science and Religion Studies, Civilizational University Studies, and Higher Education Governance Studies.
Currently, the library services of the institution include the following:

Row	Type of service	users	Description
1	Searching and borrowing library resources	Scientific members and faculty and staff of the institute	It is possible to borrow books and use student projects and theses in the library
2	Buying the orders of academic members and academic staff of the institute from Tehran International Book Fair every year		Preparation of book purchase vouchers for faculty members and staff  Buying books needed by the library
3	Organizing book review meetings		This is provided in the library hall
4	Reading room		For members of the institute only
5	Access to the system of articles and full versions of non-Persian electronic texts through Semanta database	Scientific members and faculty of the institute	Access to more than 95% of the world's scientific databases, creating user accounts for users, managing people's accounts in the amount of resource downloads www.semanta.ir
6	Provision of an interlibrary loan desk		Effective communication and cooperation with several libraries by concluding a memorandum of understanding for book exchange and interlibrary loan.

Future Vision of the Library
The following are the priority activities in accordance with the library's long-term goals of achieving authority and becoming one of the specialized centers of scientific resources in the institute's study areas:

• Creation of a specialized digital library;
• Providing and activating digital resources appropriate to the institute's study areas;
• Revision of the library regulations according to the new needs and conditions;
• Preparation of indexing software;
• Provision of professional software such as MRP, SPSS, SAS, etc. for use in the library environment;
• Connecting to sources and databases outside the institute through the Internet (SID, CIVILICA, Magiran, etc. as well as such projects as Ghadir, Amin, Daneshyar)
• Increasing library resources, especially electronic resources

Terms of membership and use of the library
The library works on a membership basis. Only members of the library who are the same as members of the institute can borrow books and use theses and research projects only in the library.
The working hours of the library are from Saturday to Wednesday, 8:00-16:00
Email:            libraryiscs.ac.ir
Phone:           +98 21 22 570 666 / extension 231
Fax:                +98 21 22 570 722