Social impact

People’s Collection Wales

The Library offers a program of activities, training opportunities and skills development sessions across Wales for learners of all ages, with much of this work taking place through the People's Collection Wales project. This project, in collaboration with Amgueddfa Cymru and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales provides a website that brings together the heritage of Wales and protects it for future generations.

During 2022-2023 People’s Collection staff presented 121 sessions that included training on how to organize, scan and digitize photographs and documents, scanning and digitizing to the standard of museums, archives and libraries, oral history training, and information about copyright and meta data.

During 2022-23 the People’s Collection has supported Mencap Cymru with an oral history project to collect and document the history of the Mencap service in Stackpole, Ceredigion and Chepstow, Monmouthshire. The level of support varies from one project to the next, but usually includes offering training that enables communities and groups to collect, curate and present their own stories in digital formats ranging from photographs to oral history.

Blood Bikes Wales partnership

In September 2022 the Library announced a new partnership with the Blood Bikes Wales charity that provides a completely free of charge, rapid response courier service for the National Health Service. By providing storage for the charity’s motor bikes the Library is glad to support the work of the Aberystwyth branch of Blood Bikes Wales as they provide a service for Bronglais Hospital, smaller local hospitals, Minor Injuries Units and Integrated Care Centres in the region.

The local Aberystwyth group of Blood Bikes Wales currently comprises 20 riders, 2 controllers, and a dedicated support team of fundraisers and admin volunteers. This is the smallest Blood Bike group in Wales despite covering the largest geographical area, responding to over 600 calls a year and travelling approximately 25,000 miles annually.

Since establishing the partnership between the Library and Blood Bikes Wales exactly a year ago, the charity’s Aberystwyth group has responded to around 400 requests to help the National Health Service, and in doing so have increased its operating hours by approximately 15%. This includes the recent introduction of a completely new service of providing a scheduled daily transfer of pathology samples from Bronglais Hospital Blood Sciences to other Hywel Dda Blood Sciences Laboratories.

A Warm Welcome in the Library

During 2022 the Library became a member of Ceredigion Council and CAVO’s Warm Spaces network, offering a dedicated room for the public where people can work, read or relax. As more people faced a challenging time we were particularly happy to provide a place where people can have free internet access making it ideal for people who do not wish to work from home, or want company in a different location where they can socialise and keep warm.