The executive manager of petroleum documents center, Heshmatollah Monem, says that documents are good witnesses with regard to Iran’s oil industry past events.
Addressing the two day gathering of petroleum museums and documents center’s staff in Tehran, he said the center started gathering historic documents related to oil industry as of early 2015 under a decision made by the Petroleum Ministry.
He continued: despite unsatisfied news were heard about destruction of many valuable documents in the past, fortunately what is happening now is very promising.
Monem further said: following the issuance a directive by Iranian petroleum minister with regard to the necessity of reviewing old oil industry documents by petroleum museums experts, now the doors of many old archives are open to our experts, even though their review may take several months or even years due to lack of access to enough facilities and professional workforce, he noted.
Fortunately, after launching oil industry documents center we are witnessing a movement in oil industry which has persuaded oil industry staff to be aware of the importance of identification, safeguarding and preservation of historic oil industry documents so that every day we hear good news about preserving these documents, according to the manager.
Speaking about the launching Abadan Technical-Vocational School as a petroleum museum in the near future, he said: when we started gathering information about this school we had not access to even a single page of authentic information except some quotes and memories. But nowadays there is a big pile of documents in our disposal after unearthing a collection of documents containing valuable information about Abadan Technical-Vocational School with very useful information.
He noted that providing every single drop of information by oil industry veterans will lead to formation of a sea full of documents which in turn will help us to portray a true image of Iran’s oil industry past.
Morteza Rasoulipour a senior expert at petroleum museums and documents center was another key speaker of the two-day conference who addressed about the methods of collecting documents and oral history characteristics.
He said: there are differences between oral history and memories noting while in memory the narrator is the key, in oral history the subject is the main issue and the produced text is the result of the attempts of interviewer, interviewee and recording devices.
Rasoulipour outlined the elements of oral history and explained about the methods of recording information whether they are oral or written.