Policies and preservation
how we catalogue Welsh Government publications
Keywords:
government publications, Welsh Government Publications ArchiveAbstract
The Welsh Government Publications Archive is a publicly available catalogue which allows anyone to search and access the historic publications of the Welsh Government and its predecessors. This article outlines the Publications Archive's purpose and background, and how the Knowledge and Library Services team within Welsh Government maintain this resource. It delves into their cataloguing practices and how these have developed over time, describing their approaches to cataloguing standards, classification and thesauri. The article also explores the challenges faced when cataloguing government publications and how these are informed by the evolution of government publishing practices, before concluding by reflecting on potential future developments.
References
Freedom of Information Act 2000, c. 36. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/contents [Accessed 23 February 2026]
Howells, V. (2024) Written Statement: Operational Establishment of the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research. Available at: https://www.gov.wales/written-statement-operational-establishment-commission-tertiary-education-and-research [Accessed 23 February 2026]
Library of Congress (2026) Library of Congress Classification PDF Files. Available at: https://www.loc.gov/aba/publications/FreeLCC/freelcc.html [Accessed 23 February 2026]
Local Government Association (2013) Integrated Public Sector Vocabulary (IPSV). Available at: https://standards.esd.org.uk/?uri=list%2Fsubjects&tab=details [Accessed 23 February 2026]
The National Archives (2014) Open Government Licence for Public Sector Information. (Version 3.0). Available at: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ [Accessed 23 February 2026]
Planning Inspectorate (2021) Planning Inspectorate Wales transition to new service. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/planning-inspectorate-wales-transition-to-new-service--2 [Accessed 23 February 2026]
The Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/1415). Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/1415/contents [Accessed 23 February 2026]
Welsh Government (2024) Welsh Government publication scheme. Available at: https://www.gov.wales/welsh-government-publication-scheme [Accessed 23 February 2026]
The Welsh Language Standards (No. 1, No. 2, No. 4, No. 6 and No. 7) Regulations (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/339 (W.68)). Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2025/339/contents/made [Accessed 23 February 2026]
Williams, N. (2018) 'Why GOV.UK content should be published in HTML and not PDF', Government Digital Service, 16 July. Available at: https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2018/07/16/why-gov-uk-content-should-be-published-in-html-and-not-pdf/ [Accessed 23 February 2026]
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Crown Copyright
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
