Free access to scholarship from Wales

 

 

Update

 

The Welsh Journals Online website has been launched and the first 19 titles are available:

 

• Bathafarn
• Bwletin Cymdeithas Emynau Cymru
• Cennad
• Ceredigion (1951-2001)
• Ceredigion (2002-2004)
• Heddiw
• Journal of the Pembrokeshire Historical Society
• Journal of Welsh Ecclesiastical History
• Journal of Welsh Religious History
• Lleufer
• Publications of the South Wales Record Society
• The Pembrokeshire historian
• Tir Newydd
• Welsh History Review
• Y Cofiadur
• Y Fflam
• Y Llyfr yng Nghymru
• Y Traethodydd
• Yr Arloeswr

 

 

The Project

 

Welsh Journals Online will provide students, teachers and researchers with free online, searchable, access to a selection of 19th-, 20th- and 21st-century Welsh and Wales-related journals held at The National Library of Wales and partner institutions. These materials cover a very wide range of subject areas, including humanities, social sciences, science and technology.

 

An innovative and dynamic web delivery interface allows the user to both browse and keyword-search a selection of the most significant journal and periodical titles – a resource estimated to contain 400,000 pages of text in both Welsh and English.

 

Members of the public have found it difficult in the past to explore this type of source to pursue topics of interest to them. Such a resource will ‘democratise’ knowledge by allowing non-specialists direct access to important primary materials that have hitherto been the preserve of professional scholars.

 

The Content

 

This collection is a selection of 50 titles in both Welsh and English including learned publications, literary journals, science and social science titles, the transactions of county historical societies and denominational publications, and popular publications discussing current affairs in Wales and beyond. This amounts to an estimated 400,000 pages – 180,000 in Welsh, 220,000 in English.

 

The inclusion of titles in the Welsh language is deliberate and important – without them it would be impossible to offer a full range of the intellectual output of Wales in the 20th century.

 

 

The Process

 

A crucial feature of this project is that the bulk of its material is in copyright. The project hopes that the rights holders will be prepared to permit their material to be included in the resource, although it will respect the wishes of those who decline.

 

 

The Future

 

After the project completion in 2010, a community of users of the resource from all groups, including both academic and non-academic users, will be encouraged to share their experiences of using and applying the resource. They would also be encouraged to register any learning objects developed based on the resource at the project website. The Library is also committed to the continuing upload of current or semi-current issues of ongoing periodicals.

 

 

Project partners

 

The digitisation of this resource was funded via the JISC Digitisation Programme.            

 

JISC supports UK further & higher education and research by providing leadership in the use of Information and Communications Technology in support of learning, teaching, research and administration. JISC receives funding from all the UK further and higher education funding councils.

 

The project is also supported by HEFCW (Higher Education Funding Council for Wales),  WHELF (Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum) and the Welsh Assembly Government.