The Roderic Bowen Library and Archives, housing university archives and special collections, is located inside the library building of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) Lampeter campus. The Lampeter campus is home to the oldest degree-granting institution in Wales, the former St David's College, and as such its Special Collections house significant information about the early history of higher education in Wales, alongside major donations from its founder the Anglican Bishop Thomas Burgess, and benefactors such as the East India Company surgeon and owner of enslaved people Thomas Phillips. The RBLA is named after Evan Roderic Bowen, Welsh Liberal Party politician, and president of the University of Wales, Lampeter, now part of UWTSD, from 1977-1992.