A rediscovered heritage: over 4,000 Luxembourgish books now digitised

For the first time in the history of its digitisation campaigns, the National Library of Luxembourg (BnL), in collaboration with Luxorr and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), has made available online more than 4,000 books from its Luxembourgish Collection.

These documents have been released on the eluxemburgensia.lu portal. They are accessible remotely, in full text and searchable by title or author.

This project was initiated in December 2024 with the signing of a pilot licence agreement between the BnL and Luxorr – the first agreement of its kind in Luxembourg – aimed at making works that are no longer available through traditional commercial channels accessible to the public.

In practical terms, at the beginning of 2025 the BnL published a list of the aforementioned Luxembourgish books on the EUIPO portal. After a six-month period during which rights holders could object, the works could be made available online.

This initiative represents a significant step forward in the promotion of Luxembourg’s cultural heritage. By providing full access to thousands of previously unavailable documents, the BnL is reviving a forgotten heritage and opening up new research perspectives in the field of “Luxemburgensia”.

The BnL thanks the Government IT Centre (CTIE) for its assistance and valuable support in the context of this project.