Posted November 5, 2004.

Librarian of Congress Visits Iran on Rare Cultural Mission

In the first visit of a high-level U.S. government official to Iran in 18 years, Librarian of Congress James Billington went to the country on a cultural-exchange mission in late October. Billington, who hopes to expand LC’s collection of Iranian publications, was invited to the country by National Library of Iran Director Muhammad Kazem Mousavi Bojnourdi, the Associated Press reported November 3. Acquisition of the materials was curtailed after diplomatic ties were severed in the wake of the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran.

“We have a large collection on the Middle East and Islamic world, and we want to expand our collection,” Billington said in the November 5 Washington Post. “We’re a world library, but our collection is not what it should be.”

Billington said he met with officials of Tehran’s parliamentary library, toured the national archives, and consulted with architects about a new facility for Iran’s national library and archives. He expected that Bojnourdi would visit Washington “as part of a normal exchange.”

At the end of Billington’s six-day visit, Bojnourdi announced that the librarians had signed an agreement, the Agence France Presse reported November 5. “We signed a memorandum of understanding to exchange resources and experiences in library science, Islam, and Iran,” said Bojnourdi.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the Bush administration had approved Billington’s visit and that the librarian had been briefed by State Department officials beforehand. A congressional official said Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chair of the Joint Committee on the Library, also approved the trip.

Posted November 5, 2004.