Submitted on behalf of WHELF and CILIP Cymru Wales June 2025
WHELF and CILIP Cymru Wales represent the library, archives, and information sectors in Wales. We wholeheartedly welcome the Welsh Government’s new “Priorities for Culture” strategy, which envisions a resilient cultural sector that celebrates Wales as a nation of culture. The allocation of £7 million to support museums, libraries, archives, and the heritage sector is a commendable step towards realising this vision.
The Welsh Government has a commendable history of proactive support for our sector, funding numerous cross-sectoral flagship projects and initiatives such as People’s Collection Wales, Crowd Cymru, Anti-Racist Library Collections, and the Welsh Digital Preservation Initiative. These initiatives have yielded significant positive impacts, aligning with the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act by enhancing community wellbeing, place-making, and economic regeneration, and are recognised for the impact they’ve had and value generated beyond Wales.
This funding approach continues to foster innovation, sustain and develop skills, and promote collaboration and best practice sharing across sectors. It has strengthened our sector by enabling collective learning, achieving economies of scale in delivering new and enhanced services, and building resilience and futureproofing through times of challenge. It has also delivered clear benefits to Welsh citizens and beyond.
However, many of our parent organisations are currently facing severe financial challenges, posing increasing risks to the library and archives sector, which houses historically significant collections including manuscripts, estate and personal archive collections including Welsh language history, rare books and printed materials. For instance, Bangor University’s recent proposal to reduce its financial deficit includes a drastic 75% reduction in archives staffing (reducing from 3 FTE to 0.5 FTE). Bangor’s historically significant collections include the R.S. Thomas collection and Penrhyn Castle Papers. Similar challenges are being faced by other universities and local authorities, leading to a growing risk of losing skills and specialist knowledge across the sector in Wales.
The ongoing financial crisis in UK higher education threatens the preservation of our cultural heritage, including unique and distinctive collections held in universities. This crisis risks the loss of scarce skills in Wales, which would have a detrimental impact on public and researcher access, conservation, and preservation efforts. Additionally, there is a risk to maintaining National Archives and CILIP Accreditations.
To mitigate these risks, we urgently call for ongoing investment to support access to our cultural heritage for the public benefit. We propose the development of a comprehensive strategy to secure rare book and archival collections in Wales for the future. WHELF and CILIP Cymru Wales are ready to support the development of such a strategy. We also advocate for central funding, similar to that provided by Research England to higher education museums, galleries, and collections, to sustain core services and their availability for researchers and the public.