Since its foundation in 1973, the South Wales Miners’ Library (SWML) has been a testimony to generations of coal miners and their families who were committed to improving the standards of working class education. The miners’ institute libraries provided the original inspiration for the SWML and the spiritual signposts for its future. It was hoped the SWML would rekindle the burning desire for education which was so much a part of the makeup of the Welsh miner in the early part of the twentieth century.
This presentation will briefly outline the development of the SWML and the collections it holds before considering the challenges and opportunities facing the SWML in the twenty-first century as it prepares to move to a new building.
Siân Williams, Librarian, South Wales Miners’ Library, Swansea University
