WHELF has an Archives & Special Collections Group which includes representatives from most of the higher education institutions in Wales. The group is tasked with developing WHELF’s digitisation strategy into an action plan which will highlight the value of special collections and archives to teaching and research.
WHELF Digitisation Strategy
WHELF’s strategy is to collaborate, together or through particular alliances, in:
- creating new digital content (or enhancing the value of existing digitised content)
- sharing expertise and knowledge in digitisation policy and practices
- developing mechanisms and supporting materials to encourage take up for teaching, learning and research
- helping to make the research undertaken in Welsh higher education institutions more visible
Lorna Hughes, Chair in Digital Collections at the National Library of Wales, has been working with WHELF to develop a number of projects. One example this year was the successful Welsh bid to the latest JISC mass digitisation call.
The Welsh Experience of World War One
A project led by the National Library of Wales and WHELF in partnership with the libraries, special collections, and archives of Wales has received £500,000 in funding from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) for mass digitisation of primary sources relating to World War One.
The project will make available a unique digital collection revealing the hidden history of World War One as it affected all aspects of Welsh life, language and culture. The project will digitise printed and manuscript sources as well as moving image, audio and photographic material. These source materials are presently fragmented and frequently inaccessible, yet collectively they form a unique resource of vital interest to researchers, students, and the public in Wales and beyond.
‘The online resource will provide an invaluable resource for teaching, research, and commemoration in time for the 100th anniversary of the start of the War,’ said Andrew Green, Librarian of the National Library of Wales. ‘This is a fantastic example of collaboration across the libraries, archives and special collections of Wales to make our unique materials available to the widest international audience via digitisation.’
Welsh Journals Online
Working in partnership with members of WHELF, the National Library of Wales is currently completing a project funded by JISC, the Library, and the Welsh Government, to digitise a substantial part of its holdings of 20th-century journals relating to Wales. The material ranges from academic and scholarly journals to current affairs and popular magazines, reflecting all aspects of Welsh life.
Welsh Newspapers and Magazines Online
This is a three-year project to digitise a high proportion of all out-of-copyright Welsh newspapers and publish the resulting text online for all to search, browse and re-use for free. WHELF supported the National Library’s successful bid to SCIF (the Strategic Capital Investment Fund). The project, to digitise 2m Welsh newspapers and journals to 1910, has reached the OCR stage: all scanning will be complete by April 2012, and titles will start appearing on the web from the spring. Finance for the OCR and other remaining tasks will come from the new EU ‘Digitisation for Business’ project, funded by ERDF (c£1.9m), which will otherwise concentrate on the commercial exploitation by Convergence area companies of our ‘digitised produce’.
Turning the Pages
New technology designed to allow users to virtually ‘turn’ the pages of digitised books has been unveiled in Cardiff University Information Services’ Special Collections and Archives (SCOLAR). The new 40” digital 3D touch-screen and Turning the Pages software gives users the opportunity to view some of Wales’ oldest books and manuscripts, which form part of the collection of 14,000 rare items transferred to the University in May 2010.
SCOLAR’s purchase of the touch-screen and software, as part of a grant from the Wolfson Foundation, makes Cardiff the first institution in Wales to use such technology to display digital rare books. The full size kiosk was a popular attraction at the Hay Book Festival and at the National Eisteddfodd in 2011. With the support of the Welsh Government and CyMAL, SCOLAR has now purchased portable versions of Turning the Pages to tour Wales.
Bangor Pontifical Project
The Bangor Pontifical is a unique medieval manuscript kept at Bangor University Archives. It was made for the personal use of Anian II, Bishop of Bangor between 1309 and 1328, and contains various liturgical ceremonies in Latin. It is also valuable for its rich musical content and contains many plainchant melodies, some known only from this source.
The Bangor Pontifical Project was launched in October 2009 to coincide with Bangor University’s 125th Anniversary Celebrations, and is a collaboration between Bangor Cathedral, Bangor University Archives, the College of Arts and Humanities, and the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies. The main purpose of the project is to safeguard the manuscript for posterity, to provide global access by digitising its contents, and to produce a series of cutting-edge resources that will enhance its appeal to users of all kinds.
Welsh Ballads
Historic news once sung on street corners is now being captured online in a virtual resource. 4,000 ballads from 18th and 19th century Wales are launching on a website run by Cardiff University and the National Library of Wales. The songs document the important issues of their day, such as workers’ rights and crime, as well as local festivals and village gossip. Funded through a £66,000 grant from JISC, the project has completed a network of digital resources giving access to these precious documents.
The Welsh Ballads project puts in place the final piece of a national jigsaw of digitised ballads. Adding to the ballad collections of England and Scotland this new archive will help make this a unique and indispensable resource for researchers, students and interested members of the public. This project is part of JISC’s continued work to enhance collections of significance, and ensure that resources are not left in isolation, but brought together for the benefit of research, teaching and learning for everyone. Digitisation of the ballads collections was carried out in Cardiff University’s Information Services Directorate and the National Library of Wales.
Shaping the future – for heritage, for everyone: consultation on the Heritage Lottery Fund’s strategic framework for 2013–2019
WHELF responded to this consultation in order to stress the value of the documentary heritage, much of which is held in archives and library collections in national libraries and universities. These special collections are of enduring historical value, but action is needed to preserve and make them accessible for future generations.
