Report of the National Libraries Committee.

  • Great Britain. National Libraries Committee.
Date:
1969
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the National Libraries Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    71/340 (page 53)
    of claim in the case of books not wholly or mainly of Welsh or other Celtic interest. It specialises, therefore, in books and manuscripts relating to Wales and the Celtic peoples, and publishes an annual register of such publications called the Bibliotheca Celtica. 219. The collections are for consultation in the library’s own reading rooms, but under its Charter, the library is given the authority to maintain a department of duplicates to be lent for the purposes of instruction in connection with the educational institutions of Wales. Such loans are made through local libraries. 220. The National Library of Wales acts as one of the two regional library bureaux for Wales; the other is at Cardiff. All applications for books from libraries in Wales are first sent to the National Library or to the Cardiff bureau. If these libraries are unable to supply, the requests are forwarded to the NCL. 221. The library holds special collections of records relating to Wales includ- ing Welsh Probate Records up to 1857, and it also collects records of the Church of Wales. The manuscripts, maps and newspaper collections are mainly Welsh or of Welsh interest. 222. The photographic section undertakes the production of photostats, Xerox copies and microforms, and these services are available to help public libraries to build up, at reasonable cost, collections of documents relating to local history. (e) Stock 223. The library contains about 2 million printed books including periodicals and newspapers, over 30,000 volumes of manuscripts and about 34 million deeds and other documents. (f) Staff 224. The staff structure is based upon civil service grades although the staff are not technically civil servants, and a contributory pension scheme operates. There are about eight senior library staff including subject specialists. (g) Costs of Services 225. The cost of staffing the library in 1967/68 was about £143,000. General administrative expenses, which included maintenance of buildings and furniture, fuel and light, rates, stationery and printing, etc., amounted to a further £31,000. The library’s own printing unit is largely self-supporting. The annual grant for Purchases of items for the collections has been £18,000 since 1964/65. After allowing for receipts, the total of these costs is about £190,000.