Roderic Bowen Library And Archive

The Roderic Bowen Library and Archive (also RBLA) is a university archive, and special collection library, located inside the library building of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) Lampeter campus. The Lampeter campus is home to the oldest degree-granting institution in Wales, the former St. David's College, and as such its archive houses significant information about the early history of higher education in Wales, alongside numerous contributions from its founder the Anglican Bishop Thomas Burgess, and benefactors such as the slaver Thomas Phillips. The RBLA is named after Evan Roderic Bowen, Welsh Liberal Party politician, and president of the University of Wales, Lampeter, now UWTSD, 1977-1992.

Collections of the RBLA

The RBLA comprises two parts, the archive itself, and the 'library' or special collection.

The Archive

The contents of the archive were originally compiled by the founders and benefactors of St. David's College; Burgess, the founder, is known to have donated a 13th century Bible, and a number of medieval theological documents. Thomas Phillips donated 20,000 books, relating to various disciplines, from theology, which was the college's initial specialism, to history and Caribbean geography. Further titles have been collected in the following two centuries, including local records pertaining to college life and public perceptions of the college, as well as numerous historic books. The archive also houses important Celtic material, including a collection of 800 Welsh ballads, purchased by the college in 1904.

Much of the contents of the current archive were originally housed in the old university library, now known as the Founder's Library, in the St. David's Building. This was built between 1822 and 1827, for the then enormous sum of £21,000, and extended from 1837 to house the Phillips Collection. The archive materials were moved to the new purpose-built research library in 2008, when it was officially opened by Rhodri Morgan, First Minister for Wales. The RBLA's archive is climate controlled to preserve its contents, however the contents' former home, the Founder's Library, was not, and as a result some older materials within the archive are slightly damaged.

The Special Collection

The special collection is home to many of the rare-books stored at the UWTSD. The collection includes 35,000 rare printed books including the first edition of ''Gulliver's Travels'' (London, 1726) and Wynkyn de Worde's 1498 edition of Legenda aurea. These titles do not require the controlled environment of an archive, but, nonetheless, form a valuable collection. The room in which these are kept also functions as a reading room for the entire RBLA, for books within the special collection library, and from the archive. In 2022, to celebrate the centenary of the founding of Trinity Saint David's, the university published ''Treasures: The Special Collections of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David'', a series of essays on some of the most important items held in the Roderic Bowen Collection edited by John Morgan-Guy.

Access to the RBLA

The RBLA is accessible to the general public by prior appointment only, with materials being provided at the user's request. Users can search for titles using the archive's catalogue while within the RBLA, or can pre-order materials via e-mail communication with the archive. Students at UWTSD are able to access the RBLA at any time when it is open and staffed, but as with members of the general public, access to materials is provided on request. The University also offers educational classes at RBLA, in which students work on projects using the archive materials.

References

External links

Roderic Bowen Library and Archives official website

{{coord missing, United Kingdom

Archives in Wales
Special collections libraries in the United Kingdom
University of Wales Trinity Saint David