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26.11.19

This year the National Lottery is 25 years old. To celebrate this the #ThanksToYou campaign will be held from 23 November to 1 December and the National Library of Wales will take part in the celebrations to mark the difference National Lottery money has made to the Library's work.

During the week, we will be sharing information on our social media accounts about National Lottery-funded projects and the difference these projects have made to the Library's work and well-being. In addition, on Thursday 28 November there is an opportunity for those who have bought a National Lottery ticket to visit the Library for a guided tour of the building and to hear more about these projects. Tea or coffee and cake will await them at the end.

National Lottery funding has enabled the Library to undertake a number of ambitious projects. This month the Library has officially embarked on an exciting and innovative project to establish a National Broadcast Archive for Wales, a project made possible by a substantial grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Therefore, as part of the #ThanksToYou campaign, the Library will launch the National Broadcast Archive project by releasing 5 historical clips from the BBC Wales archive every day between 25-29 November.

These will be the first clips to be released online by the project, and by the end of the five-year project period, 1500 BBC Wales archive clips will be available for everyone to view and enjoy online. Follow @NLWBroadcast or the National Library of Wales’ Facebook page to be the first to see the clips.

The ability to carry out such projects is possible thanks to National Lottery players, and they have also funded other valuable programmes by the Library.

Because of National Lottery funding, the Library was also able to set up a volunteering scheme in June 2012. The financial platform has enabled the Library to open its doors to over 300 volunteers, of all ages, backgrounds and abilities, over recent years. Volunteers have made a significant contribution to the work of the Library and have also had the opportunity to develop new skills and meet new friends.

By the time the Cynefin project ended in 2017, 1,200 tithe maps from 1838-1850 had been repaired and digitized and the Library had collaborated with 1,300 online volunteers to transcribe and geo-reference the maps to create an all-Wales digital map of the period, with all the supplementary information such as field names, farm names and landowners searchable online. These are now available to search on places.library.wales.

Then, in May 2017 the National Lottery Heritage Fund supported the Library's crowdsourcing website’s first project, to transcribe the Cardiganshire's Great War Appeal Tribunals Records. Thanks to over 200 online volunteers on the crowd.library.wales website, the collection was transcribed within 6 months which means that these records can now be searched by name, address, date etc through a digital gallery on www.library.wales

Pedr ap Llwyd, Chief Executive and Librarian of the National Library of Wales, said:
"Without all the generous contribution of the public through their purchase of National Lottery tickets, all this work would not have been possible, the Library is very grateful to them all and is delighted to be involved in this campaign."

Richard Bellamy, Director of the National Lottery Heritage Fund in Wales, said:
“You don’t have to travel far in Wales to see some of the wonderful projects the National Lottery has helped fund. From historic parks, nature and breath-taking landscapes to castles, museums and industrial heritage, these are the places we hold close to our hearts and without National Lottery players, none of this would have been possible. With over £1.75 billion invested in Wales over the past 25 years, this campaign is the perfect way for us to say ‘thank you.”


Follow us on Facebook: llgcymrunlwales and Twitter: @NLWales during the week to learn how this money has made a difference to the Library.

ENDS

Further Information

Elen Haf Jones
post@llgc.org.uk     or
01970 632 534

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