National Library of Wales missing 2,200 items

About 2,200 items are missing at the National Library of Wales - an increase of 84% in two years.

Among the archives and manuscripts missing are deeds of 13th Century Powis Castle, and "rolls" and "pedigree" documents from Gwrych Castle in Abergele, Conwy county, which twice hosted ITV's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!

Among missing books are the history of the national library building itself in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, by Daniel Huws, and books by George Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolf.

The library is creating a new "collection care" department and is currently recruiting a head of the department, as well as a head of unique collections.

The library's head of communications, Rhodri ap Dyfrig, said that staff had "introduced new stock checking processes for published collections and therefore we fully expected that there would be an increase in the items recorded as not being in their correct location".

He added: "The thorough process of monitoring of misplaced items takes place continuously and these checks are a normal and integral part of maintaining standards and good practice in the library sector.

"Due to this constant monitoring and work, the data we provide is a snapshot of a specific period in time, and this figure fluctuates regularly as items are found and relocated."

The library carries out an annual audit of items worth more than £10,000 and no missing items that cross that threshold were found over the last year.

The library's collections include seven million books and newspapers, 1.5 million maps and 950,000 photographs located across 160 miles of shelves.

The Welsh government said: "The care and management of its collections is a matter for the National Library.

"In doing so, it meets the Archive Service Accreditation – the UK-wide standard for archive services."