Interested in widening her non-executive input and experience beyond the finance/audit sphere, Jo Williams applied and became a Board member with the National Library of Wales in May 2025. Here she shares more about her role and the work of the library. 

The National Library of Wales was founded in 1907 with a fundamental purpose to ensure that the unique history, culture and heritage of Wales is accessible to everyone to learn, research and enjoy. Its first objective, as stated in the 2025-2030 corporate strategy, is to preserve, grow and share the nation’s memory. It is both a charity and a Welsh Government funded body with incoming resources of £22m and a staff headcount of 232 in 2024/25.

The Library occupies a magnificent building in Aberystwyth where it houses a vast amount of visual and audio- visual collections, manuscripts, works of art, photographs and maps and has over 6 million digitised items on the internet. It is a Legal Deposit Library for every print publication in Britain and Ireland with over 4 thousand new items arriving weekly.

The ‘Clip Corner’ is one example of how the Library has extended access to its collections across Wales. There are now 15 of these in various locations-e.g. The Wales Millennium Centre –making half a million BBC Cymru Wales, ITV and S4C radio and T.V. programmes from the Wales Broadcast Archive available to view. The latest of these was set up in March this year is in Wrexham.

The Library had 1.9m digital visits, 3.1m social media channel impressions and almost 90k visitors in person in 2024/25.

Governance-the Board

The Library’s Board of Trustees has 15 members including a President, Vice President and Treasurer and meets six times yearly- in person in Aberystwyth, at one other Wales location and also online. Our role is to provide leadership and good governance to the organisation, define and develop its strategic direction.

The Board of Trustees must uphold principles of regularity, propriety and value for money and we have individual and collective responsibility to the Minister for Culture and Sport of Welsh Government.

Three committees- Audit, Assurance and Risk, Performance and Quality and Finance and Resources – support the Board and meet quarterly. The committees comprise Board members with two having an external independent member. All Board positions except for the President  are unsalaried and are for a term of 4 years with potential for a second term extension.

The Library’s Board meetings agenda is at a strategic level and includes our review and approval of strategies such as the Collections and Engagement strategies, its Medium Term Financial Plan and the Annual Budget approval.

The executive team attend all meetings and we receive a report from the Chief Executive at every meeting as an update on all key events, exhibitions and external party communications. The Library has strong links with other cultural bodies in Wales and beyond and has a significant number of international visitors.

The role of a Board Member

As a relatively new Board member I am still learning about the organisation and its vast range of collections. The Library is a leading Welsh body for the promotion of Welsh culture and the Welsh language with Board meetings conducted in Welsh. As a Welsh speaker I am comfortable with  Board meetings being conducted in Welsh, though I do make use of the simultaneous translation option available.

I am a member of the Finance and Resources Committee and am able to apply my core expertise through this role. We receive a comprehensive set of management accounts in our quarterly meetings for approval on the Board’s behalf and review revenue and capital project progress. The Library grant income has and continues to come from different sources as well as Welsh Government. A significant private funds balance has also built up from years of donations and legacies as a charity for which we approve the investment strategy.

I am thoroughly enjoying making a contribution at a strategic and corporate governance level for the Library and working in a collegiate way with my fellow Board members, who bring a host of talents for its benefit. I would strongly recommend a Board role such as this for ACCA public sector members. I believe we have very relevant experience and the breadth of thinking needed for effectiveness in such positions.