The Shahid Beheshti library becomes the fourth United Nations depository library in Iran. The others are: Ketabkhaneh Majles-e Showra Ye Eslami no. 1 (Islamic Consultative Assembly Library No:1), the Center for Graduate International Studies, Faculty of Law of the Tehran University, and the Mirzaye Shirazi Library, College of Literature and Human Science, Shiraz University. In addition, library services are also available at the United Nations Information Center

Shahid Beheshti University, founded in 1960, is one of the largest academic institutions in the country, with about 14,000 students and an academic staff of over 450. The Central Library is the principal library and documentation center of the university; with a staff of 36, it supports 10 faculty libraries, linked through a computer network. The library contains over 300,000 volumes and more than 700 periodicals, as well as microforms, maps, manuscripts and other documents. Its United Nations deposit consists of printed publications in English as well as Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) masthead documents.

A simple ceremony was recently held at the Shahid Beheshti's Central Library to mark the opening of a section containing UN documents and publications. Senior officials and professors of the univesity as well as a group of students attended the inauguration. They expressed their satisfaction at their university having won the status of a UN depository library, hoping that it would benefit both the students and professors and thanked the UN Information Center, in Tehran, for the cooperation they had received all along.

Since 1946, the Dag Hammarskjold Library at United Nations Headquarters in New York, which is part of the Department of Public Information (DPI), has ararnged for the distribution of United Nations documents and publications to users around the world through its depository library system. At present there are 381 United Nations depository libraries: 55 are located in Africa, 88 in Asia and the Pacific, 17 in western Asia, 33 in eastern Europe, 85 in western Europe, 49 in Latin America and the Caribbean and 54 in North America.

These libraries receive United Nations materials, with the understanding that their collections will be maintained in good order and made available to the general public free of charge.

United Nations member states, as well as non-members are entitled to one free depository, usually the national library in the capital city. In addition, the national parliamentary library, if open to the public, is also entitled to receive material free of charge.

Other depository libraries pay a token annual contribution to receive United Nations documentation. Developing countries pay a significant smaller amount than developed countries.

The designation of depositories is carried out by the United Nations Publications Board. The degree of development of the requesting libraries and the overall geographic distribution of depository libraries in the countries concerned are among the criteria used.

United Nations professional librarians and information officers make periodic visits to depository libraries to provide assistance and training in the management of the United Nations collection. In addition, special training seminars for depository librarians are perodically organized by the Dag Hammarskjold Library in New York and by the Library of the United Nations Office at Geneva.