The Thomas Parry Library at Aberystwyth was part of the library of the

University of Wales Aberystwyth Aberystwyth University () is a public research university in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding member institution of the former federal University of Wales. The university has over 8,000 students studying across three academic facul ...

, it served the Department of Information Studies, Department of Law and Criminology and the School of Management & Business. It opened in June 1970 and closed 10 August 2018.

History

The Library was opened in June 1970 to serve the

College of Librarianship Wales The College of Librarianship Wales () (known as CLW) was a monotechnic college specializing in library and information science in Aberystwyth, Wales, between its foundation in 1964 and August 1989, when it was merged with University College of ...

. The architect was G. R. Bruce, the builder G. M. Jenkins and Sons,

Tregaron Tregaron ( "town of St Caron") is an ancient market town in Ceredigion, Wales. It is sited astride the River Brenig, a tributary of the River Teifi, and is north-east of Lampeter. According to the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census, the po ...

and it cost £135,000. When in 1989, the College of Librarianship Wales became part of the

, under the name of the 'Department of Information and Library Studies' ILS the library became part of the University's Library service. This, in 1995, joined the University's Computing and Audio-visual Units to form Information Service, University of Wales, Aberystwyth. In August 1995 the library was renamed the Thomas Parry Library. It was named after the distinguished scholar, and former librarian at the National Library of Wales, Sir Thomas Parry. In 1996 the Welsh Agricultural College (WAC), another previously autonomous institution located on Aberystwyth's Llanbadarn Fawr Campus, merged with UWA to form the Welsh Institute of Rural Studies

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

The library of the former WAC (which also served the adjacent

Coleg Ceredigion Coleg Ceredigion, formerly known as Aberystwyth Technical College and later as Aberystwyth College of Further Education, is a bilingual further education college in Ceredigion, Wales. It has two campuses in the two largest towns in Ceredigion, n ...

) merged with the Thomas Parry Library, which was extended and substantially re-modelled to cope with the substantial increase in stock, staff and readers. Since closing in August 2018, the Thomas Parry Library collections and services are now held at the university's Hugh Owen Library. The former Thomas Parry Library is currently being used as a Covid-19 vaccination centre site. Before the library's closure a memorial event 'Thomas Parry Library: a celebration' was held on 19 July 2018 at the library with former and current library staff including Alan Clark, Bill Hines and Elizabeth Kensler.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Library buildings completed in 1970 Academic libraries in the United Kingdom Aberystwyth University Buildings and structures in Aberystwyth Former library buildings in Wales Libraries disestablished in 2018 1970 establishments in Wales 2018 disestablishments in Wales