The Salisbury Collection
The nucleus of the present Salisbury Collection was collected by Enoch Robert Gibbon Salisbury (1819-1890), a native of Flintshire, who was briefly MP for Chester.
The original collection contained about 13,000 books in Welsh, or relating to Wales and the Border Counties, together with valuable albums of maps and prints. Amongst them were rare books printed from the early sixteenth century onwards.
Salisbury's books were purchased by the College in 1886. Since that date many Welsh and Celtic books have been added so that today the Salisbury Collection is one of the major collections of its kind, with information covering historical, literary and linguistic studies, as well as the present Welsh economic, political, and social situation, containing about 50,000 books, pamphlets and periodicals.
The Salisbury Collection is located on the Second Floor of the Arts and Social Studies Library.
Arrangement of the Collection
Books are arranged in the following main groups:
W Celtic and General
WA Ireland and Irish
WB Scotland and Scots Gaelic
WC Isle of Man and Manx
WE Cornwall and Cornish
WF Brittany and Breton
WG Wales
There is a copy of the full classification scheme with the Salisbury Collection near the catalogues.
All books and journals in the Salisbury Collection are listed on the Voyager catalogue.
Folios
Folio books are shelved at Range 58, their classification numbers have the prefix f.
Reference Books
Reference works and bibliographies (WG40), dictionaries of biography (WG42), and encyclopaedias (WG45) are grouped together at Range 59. They are for use in the Library only.
Periodicals
There is an extensive collection of periodicals, arranged alphabetically according to title on Ranges 54-57; the current issues are displayed on Range 59. Titles for all periodicals are included on Voyager. Staff and students may borrow overnight.
Newspaper Cuttings Collection
A newspaper cuttings collection, taken mainly from the Western Mail and Y Cymro, is held in the Salisbury Collection. It covers about 20 subjects, and contains factual and up to date information on topics relating to Wales from 1989 to 1995. The Western Mail on CD-ROM is available from 1996 onwards.
Pre-1900 Books
All pre-1900 Salisbury books are held in SCOLAR (Special Collections and Archives).