In October 2018 the Library shared a number of additional items from its collections on Europeana, a European digital cultural platform. The Library worked with 12 other partner institutions on a project entitled ‘The Rise of Literacy’ which aimed to explore the history of reading and writing in Europe.
As a result of this initiative, various users will be able to access a wide range of text based objects, many of which are being showcased on a digital platform for the first time: from manuscripts to printed volumes, periodicals to newspapers.
These items were explored in various editorial features, all focusing, in one way or another, on the development of literacy in Europe. We as institutions worked on a range of curatorial content – from digital exhibitions and blog posts to visual galleries, and these assessed the significance of the text based objects within a pan-European context. The curated features appeared on Europeana Collections from October 2018 onward.
Here you can view the Library’s contributions on a thematic basis. From manuscripts to newspapers, dictionaries to cook books, and children’s literature to ballads; they all have something to offer with regards to tracking the history of literacy. From the iconic to the unexpected, they collectively give a multi-layered summary on the evolution of reading and writing in Wales and beyond, from the mid-thirteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century.
