What is the GWRANDO service?
The GWRANDO service was established in 2024, a collaboration set up between the North Wales Society for the Blind (NWSB), Society of Chief Librarians, Wales (SCL Cymru) and the National Library of Wales (NLW), with the purpose of supplying Welsh-language audio books to public libraries in Wales recorded by the North Wales Society for the Blind.
The service is funded by Welsh Government via the National Digital Library Service (NDLS), and also by library authorities across Wales. The GWRANDO service links with Welsh Government’s aim of 1 million Welsh-speakers by 2050 and is the only way of ensuring Welsh Libraries offer some parity with English e-audiobook provision to library users in Wales.
The National Library of Wales and the Society of Chief Librarians have strong links going back many years. The promotion of the Welsh language through the GWRANDO service is just one of many areas in which SCL Cymru and NLW have come together to improve delivery and promotion of library services to users across Wales.
In more recent years NLW and SCL Cymru have created links through the National Digital Library Service (NDLS) which is based in the National Library and directly funded by the Culture Department of Welsh Government. This service aims to promote libraries in Wales in general and public libraries in particular and also acquires e-resources centrally for the use of public libraries and others in Wales.
The Welsh-language e-audiobooks are created in the North Wales recording studio in Bangor where many famous names, including the authors themselves, become the narrators. The recordings are then made available to public libraries in all 22 library authorities in Wales so that users can borrow them, and are also supplied to Bolinda to be made available through its popular Borrowbox e-books & e-audiobooks service.
As part of the agreement, GWRANDO will be recording 24 Welsh-language audiobooks every year, and the first collection of 24 recordings created during 2024-25 under the new SLA has now been supplied to libraries and Borrowbox. The audiobook content each year will be split between children & young people’s and adult titles.
What Welsh-language eAudiobooks are available?
There are over 170 Welsh-language eAudiobook titles now available on the Borrowbox service, for library users to download and listen to.
Titles recorded by NWSB during 2024-25 include:
eAudiobooks for Adults
- Porth – Luned Aaron
- Y Gwyliau – Sioned William
- Llyfr y Flwyddyn – Mari Emlyn
- Trysor Garn Fadryn – Anni Llyn
- Salem – Haf Llewelyn
- Aduniad – Eilidir Jones
- Yn Ol i Leifior – Islwyn Ffowc Elis
- I’r Eisteddfod – Lois Arnold
eAudiobooks for Children
- Na Nel! yn achub y Byd – Meleri Wyn James
- Sara Mai ac Antur y Fferm – Casia Wiliam
- Cadi Goch a’r Crochan Hud – Simon Rodway
- Bwch – Anni Llyn
- Cadi a’r Gwrachod – Bethan Gwanas
- Y Boced Wag – Eurgain Haf
- Fi Ydi Fi – Sian Lewis
- Anturiaethau’r Brenin Arthur – Rebecca Thomas
eAudiobooks for Young adults
- Sblash! – Branwen Davies
- Adduniad – Elidir Jones
- Croesi Llinell – Mared Lewis
- Llwybrau Cul – Mared Lewis
- #Helynt – Rebecca Roberts
- Mwy o Helynt – Rebecca Roberts
- Fi ac Aaron Ramsey – Manon Steffan Ros
- Powell – Manon Steffan Ros
What is the wider role of NWSB?
The Society provides invaluable practical support, information and advice to blind and partially sighted people throughout North Wales, promoting independence, choice and confidence whilst also providing the essential services their members express are important to them.
They offer a wide range of services including:
- Rehabilitation support
- Resource and information centre
- Services for children and young people
- Audio transcriptions
- Clubs and groups
- Grants
- Technology advice and support
- Welsh Audiobooks and local area newspapers
NWSB have been providing members with Welsh-language audiobooks for many years. The new GWRANDO service will guarantee the invaluable provision every year of a number of Welsh-language audiobooks to public library users in Wales, enabling Welsh speakers to listen to a wider range of titles in their native tongue, and supporting the recent growth in popularity of Audiobooks.
When did NWSB begin?
The story began on the 5th of January 1882 where a small group of volunteers lead by the presidency of the Bishop of Bangor came together in hope of “teaching the blind to read so that the monotony of their lives owing to blindness might be as much as possible relieved.”
During the meeting they resolved that a branch of the Home Teaching Society for the Blind be established in North Wales, and a 19 strong board of volunteers were set to task to formulate the Society.
By 1895 a library of Braille books had been established with and 450 books had been loaned during the year by 173 registered members.
At the 50th Annual General Meeting the name of the charity was officially changed to the North Wales Society for the Blind to reflect the changing demands on the work of the Society.
1962 witnessed the emergence of the talking book service, with 53 members in North Wales receiving audio books. In 1963, the North Wales Society for the Blind was the first organisation to record Welsh talking books. A studio dedicated to recording books Welsh language books was created in Bangor.
A recipient of the first book described it as the greatest development for the blind since Louis Braille devised his system of writing. The first books to be recorded were William Jones and O law i Law by T Rowland Hughes, and Cysgod y Cryman by Islwyn Ffowc Ellis.
The popularity of the books are still relevant today. The work of the studio continues to produce Welsh talking books, newspapers and magazines, albeit on CD and MP3 as opposed to cassettes. These are available through the public library service in Wales.
Visit your local library to discover their physical Welsh-language Audiobooks collection, or go online and visit Borrowbox, your library’s e-book and e-audiobook provider where you can download the digital titles via the Borrowbox website or app.