Rare books arrive
8 July 2010
A collection of rare books, saved for Wales as part of a major joint University financial investment has arrived at the University.
The 14,000 books, which were assembled by Cardiff Public Library through donations, purchases and bequests, are now stored at the University’s Arts and Humanities Library and date back to the 1470’s.
Including 175 incunabula (a term used to describe books that were published prior to the year 1501, during printing's infancy), around 500 rare Bibles, a collection of early Shakespeare volumes and a large quantity of high quality, limited edition British 19th and 20th century private presses, the collection is now accessible to scholars to use for research purposes.
Work is underway to catalogue, conserve and digitise the collection and to make it available to researchers and members of the community from Cardiff, Wales and beyond.
Speaking about the acquisition, Peter Keelan, Head of Special Collections at the University said: "Academic staff and students are already requesting to see volumes from the rare books collection. One student has recently been awarded a one-year postdoctoral grant to work on aspects of English Literature in the collection, so Cardiff is already retaining its best research students to work here rather than going to other universities to do research.
“Visits to see the rare books collection have been arranged for staff from the National Museum of Wales, and presentations about the collection will be delivered at a Cardiff lecture this month and an international conference in Edinburgh, so word is spreading fast about the new research resources held in the University's Library.”
Alun Ffred Jones, the Welsh Assembly’s Minister for Heritage announced recently that he would be hosting a reception at the Senedd in November to thank all of those involved in the arrangement. Assembly Members were also delighted to hear that the collection would be made available to the general public during the opening hours of the Special Collections and Archives section of the Arts and Social Studies Library.
Janet Peters, Director of University Libraries and University Librarian said: "It has been heartwarming to see the level of support which the University has received before, during and now after the acquisition of this significant collection. The 14,000 books from European literatures complement our existing Salisbury collection of Welsh and Welsh related material beautifully, creating a distinctive humanities research library within Cardiff for the first time.
“We look forward to displaying the books as much as possible by mounting exhibitions and particularly by digitising a sample of works. These will be displayed using the ‘Turning the Pages’ software and dedicated touch screen kiosk (as used by the British Library) during the summer".
Anyone wanting more information on the rare books or to view the collection should contact Peter Keelan on extension 75678.
