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CYLCHGRAWN LLYFRGELL GENEDLAETHOL CYMRU THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES JOURNAL VOLUME V. Winter, 1947 NUMBER 2. EDITORIAL NOTES It is exactly forty years since the Charter of the National Library was granted by King Edward VII. This fortieth anniversary being one which called for some form of celebration, it occurred to the Librarian, who is also the editor of this Journal, that that celebration could very fittingly take the form of the publication of a special anniversary number of the Journal containing articles by the heads and other members of the staffs of the three main departments into which the Library is organised-those of (a) Manu- scripts and Records, (b) Printed Books, and (c) Prints, Drawings, and Maps-these articles being designed to survey the development of the Library and the progress realised during the past forty years. Such articles, however, should be preceded by a general article centering around the Charter itself-how it came to be sought, what its terms and intentions are, and how its clauses have been implemented. As the Editor wrote rather fully on the history of the Library and, with the aid of some of his colleagues, gave some account of its contents up to 1937, the year of the second royal visit1, he felt that on this occasion that particular article should be prepared by another person, and the story written from another angle. This was accordingly entrusted to Mr. Gildas Tibbott, now deputy librarian and formerly a head of department. Mr. Tibbott's article thus forms a necessary introduction to those written by his colleagues. It will probably be conceded by all who read through the pages of this special number that notwithstanding the interruption caused by two world wars the progress achieved by the youngest national library in the British Isles has been truly remarkable. My colleagues in their respective contributions demonstrate the amazing growth- growth which can be truthfully described as being beyond the wildest dreams of even the most perfervid of the pioneers whom they name. The Library has obviously developed far beyond its Charter aims. The pioneers never for one moment visu- alised it as a Copyright' library or as a de facto public record office for Wales they 1 The National Library oj Wales, A Survey of its History, its Contents, and its Activities, by W. LI. Davies (Aberystwyth, 1937).