The NLW and the Europeana Libraries Project

The National Library of Wales, along with 19 other research and university libraries from 14 European countries, is now part of an exciting project to provide free access to 5 million digital objects over the next two years. The Europeana Libraries project, coordinated by the European Library and backed by the Conference of European National Librarians, the Consortium of European Research Libraries, the Europeana Foundation and the Association of European Research Libraries, offers the NLW an opportunity to reach out to people all over Europe and to show them the depth and richness of our national heritage.

The NLW will be providing free access to important collections such as the photographs of John Thomas and Geoff Charles, our Tirlun collection of topographical prints, and to early Welsh and English language periodicals such as Archaeologia Cambrensis and Y Traethodydd. Having worked for over a decade on the project to digitise the 120,000 plus images contained in the Geoff Charles collection, it’s good to know that this important record of Welsh life during the twentieth century will be reaching a broader European, and hopefully, global audience.

As a little taster of the type of images that we will be contributing to the project I’ve included a photo each from the John Thomas and Geoff Charles collections

This photo by John Thomas is a portrait of a tailor from Bryn Du, Anglesey taken ca. 1875.

John Thomas Collection (JTH01684)

This photo by Geoff Charles is a portrait of Hywel Hughes, Bogota, taken in September 1965, one of a new set of Geoff Charles images which will soon be up on the Library’s website as part of the Europeana project.

Geoff Charles Collection (GCC18656 )

Other John Thomas and Geoff Charles photographs can be viewed through the iportal on the Library’s catalogue or on the NLW’s Flickr photostream, which is updated once a week.

Douglas Jones