Help

Watch and Listen is a website providing access to digital collections of film, video and audio from the Screen and Sound Archive of the National Library of Wales and the Wales Broadcast Archive.  

You can find more information about the different types of material available on the website on the ‘What’s available’ page.

Watch and Listen will be updated with new material on a regular basis, as it becomes available.

Click on the thumbnail of the item you wish to access. This will take you to the full view of the record. Pressing the play icon will allow you to view or listen to the clip.  

You will be able to fully access material from The National Library of Wales’ digital audiovisual collections on the Watch and Listen website from the Clip Corners in various locations throughout Wales.

If you are browsing Watch and Listen from outside a Clip Corner, there are over 13,000 items that can be viewed online, from wherever you are. For all other material in the collection, you will be able to access the records but not view or listen to items. If you have a registered account, you can add these items to a playlist, ready to view/listen when you visit a Clip Corner, if they aren’t available from wherever you are.

You will not need to register to access the records for items on the Watch and Listen website from home, or to watch/listen to the selection of over 13,000 clips and programmes that are available from anywhere.

However, to be able to watch/listen to ALL clips and programmes, you will need to register for an NLW account and use your Reader’s Ticket Number to sign in, and you will need to be in a Clip Corner.

You will also need to register to create your own playlists.   

Registering will not only allow you to play all items when visiting a Clip Corner, and to create your own playlists, but will also give you access to an excellent range of The National Library of Wales online resources, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Further information regarding registration can be found on the 'Reader’s Tickets' page. 

To search for an item in the collection, enter a keyword related to the item you want to find in the Search Box on the Homepage. After you press ‘Search’, you will then be taken to the ‘Search Results’ page.

You can narrow down your search by entering another keyword/phrase into ‘Search within these results’.  

You can further refine your search results by using the facets on the left side of the screen on the ‘Search Results’ page, or by ‘Search[ing] within these results’. On a mobile phone, click on the ‘Filter’ button on the left hand side to access the facets. Clicking on the facet heading will reveal all the available options for you to narrow down your results and help you find your item. The facet options include: ‘Availability’, ‘Year’, ‘Decade’, ‘Format’, ‘Language’, ‘Genre’, ‘Content type’, ‘Channel name’, ‘Colour’, ‘Sound’, ‘Production Company’. Once selected, the results will be refined.

Click on ‘Home’ in the header. You will then be taken to the Homepage where you can create a new search.

Alternatively, you can edit your search term on the Search Results page.

You can change the number of results displayed by clicking on the ‘Sorting’ drop down at the top of the page. Here you can choose to view either 12, 24, 36 or 48 results on a page.

To change the order in which the results are displayed, click on 'Sorting’. You can sort your results by Relevance or Title, in ascending or descending order.

On the ‘Search Results’ page, each item will show the Title, Date, Duration, and a Summary, if available. Some items will display a content alert.

Clicking on a result will take you to the full view of the item and will give you access to a wider range of information, depending on the data available. This could include Title, Date, Language, Duration, Rights, Summary, Shot List, Genre, Channel name, Content type, Location, Contributors and Performers, as well as some technical information.

With so much material on the site, it’s not possible for us to review every item for sensitive or upsetting content. That’s why for some items, you will have seen the website’s general alert too, “This item may contain historical material that can cause distress or offence, including discriminatory language and attitudes”.  

Some items may also display more specific content alerts, providing specific information about the content after review by our staff.

A full list of content alerts and their meanings is available on the Content Alerts page.

The data provided for each item on the website comes from different sources and over many decades. As such the available data can vary from item to item, depending on factors such as whether the data has been compiled by broadcasters or by our cataloguers.

Some items have come to us from various sources with placeholder or stock dates provided, so some items will include incorrect date information, or occasionally no date, as a result.

Due to rights restrictions, it is only possible to view or listen to everything that is on the website when in a Clip Corner. However, all metadata records are available to access from anywhere, wherever you location. Further information on how to view the collection in your local area can be found on the 'What’s available' page.

Yes, on the Homepage, below the search bar, you will find playlists compiled by the archive’s curators. These collections will be a mix of items that can be viewed online and in Clip Corners only.

To view material available in Clip Corners only in full screen please select the full screen icon – displayed as ‘arrows’ set in a square – on the bottom right corner of the video player. To exit full screen, select the same icon or press the Esc. on your keyboard.

To view material available online in full screen, press play, then navigate to the bottom right corner to the full screen icon, which displays as two diagonal arrows.

On a mobile phone, press play, rotate the phone to landscape view, and select the arrows icon in the bottom right corner of the video.  

To adjust playback for material only accessible in Clip Corners, click the play icon in full view, then navigate to the volume icon in the bottom left to adjust volume, or the ‘1x’ icon at the bottom right of the video to adjust playback speed.

To adjust playback/quality for YouTube material, click on the play icon, then click on the ‘cog’ settings icon in the top right corner of the item. You will be given a range of playback speed/quality options.

No. Due to copyright restrictions, you are unable to download content from the website. If you have a query, please contact us through our ‘Enquiries’ page. 

A playlist is a list of audio and/or video files saved by the user that can be organised into different themes and accessed later from the ‘My Account’ section. You can sign in to your account from anywhere and create and access Playlists, but some items can only be viewed by signing in at a Clip Corner. 

To create a playlist, click on the Sign In/Register button, and enter your NLW account details. 

Go to ‘My Account’ and then ‘My Playlists’. Click on the ‘Add New Playlist’ button on the right-hand side and you will be prompted to enter a name.

You can also create a new playlist from the full view of any item. Click on an item thumbnail to get to full view. Adjacent to the video on the right side, click on the ‘bookmark’ item (which contains a ‘+’ sign). This will take you to a ‘pop-up’ window, where you can add the item to an existing playlist, or create a new one using the prompts given. Type the new playlist name in the window, and press ‘save’.

If you wish to add an item to a Playlist, in the Search Results grid view, click on the bookmark icon. An ‘Add to Playlist’ pop up will appear. If you do not already have a Playlist created, you will be prompted to create one. You can select one or more Playlists to add the item to, and then press ‘Save’.  

Alternatively, find the item you wish to add, and click on it to reach the full view. Click on the bookmark icon on the right-hand side of the Title. An ‘Add to Playlist’ pop up will appear.  

Want to know if an item has already been added to a playlist? If the bookmark icon is solid black, it has already been added to a playlist. 

To access all your Playlists, go to ‘My Account’ area and select ‘My Playlists’.

Now that you’ve created your playlist, you may want to edit it from time to time. First, navigate to the ‘My playlists’ section of ‘My Account’. Next to each playlist you’ll see 3 dots. Clicking on these dots will open a pop-up, allowing you to either edit or delete the playlist. If you choose to edit the playlist, you will be able to edit the playlist title and notes. 

If you want to delete a video from your playlist, navigate to ‘My Playlists’ and select the relevant playlist. This will open a list of items saved in the playlist. Select the 3 dots next to the item and click on ‘Delete from playlist’.

Re-use of all items in our archive is subject to rights clearance and/or licensing procedures, which may differ according to each rights holder. 

For more information, please go to the ‘Copyright, licensing and usage’ page.

No, we cannot supply promotional stills. If you have a query, please contact us through our ‘Enquiries’ page.