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Joint Call to Save Rare Books
posted on 09/09/2008

Lesley Griffiths, the Assembly Member for Wrexham, and I joined forces this week in protest of Cardiff Council's proposal to auction thousands of rare books from the City’s Public Library. If it goes ahead, the sale will be an unprecedented tragedy for Welsh history and heritage and a massive loss to the people of Wales.

We are calling for Cardiff Council to withdraw any plans to sell all ot part of the rare historical collections - some of which date back to 1508 and include early atlases, works of Shakespeare, and unique bibles.

I was horrified when I learned of the proposal to sell some of our nation’s oldest and rarest books. This is our heritage, and is of international importance. It’s a massive step back for Wales, and effectively amounts to ‘selling of the family silver’. The proposal is nothing less than ignorant to the significance and the potential of the collection.

It is the only collection of its kind in Wales, and there are other ways to make money to plug any short-term financial gaps – and that should not mean selling a long-term national asset. The Council should instead be looking at promoting and improving access to it.

Speaking this week, Lesley Griffiths AM said:

"This is very much a national concern - the collections belong to Wales, not just to Cardiff. I have learned that some of the books were 'gifts', donated to the city or to the nation; I think the Council has a moral obligation to keep them. My constituents in Wrexham, and anybody living outside Cardiff will have zero benefit from the sale of these unique Welsh treasures.

"The collections go a long way to ensuring that Wales is a nation of culture, literacy and learning. If Cardiff Council can no longer afford to maintain the collection there are places in Wales that can".

We have both pledged to back residents, academics, historians, librarians and other interested parties in the fight to prevent the sale of the books and to keep them in Wales. They have also supported the proposals by campaigners that additional revenue could be made by cataloguing the collection, enabling more researchers to access it, thereby attracting more people, graduates and postgraduate students to Wales.

It is thought that proceeds for the sale will go towards completing the building of the new public library, which the Council failed to budget for effectively.