The National Library of Luxembourg (BnL) invites the public to discover 63 Luxembourg monographs which it has just digitized and made accessible on line via the portal eluxemburgensia.lu and the search engine a-z.lu. These 63 publications are additional to the approximately 450 Luxembourg monographs which had already been put on line.
Of these new titles, 18 deal with the period of the First World War, such as Alphonse Foos’ work Das Erlebnis des Weltkrieges in der luxemburgischen Dichtung or the chronological description of the aerial bombardments of 1914 to 1918 by Jean-Pierre Robert or again the committed work of the young Albert Wehrer Pour l'Indépendance du Luxembourg published in 1919. Researchers and historians will appreciate the on-line publication of the “Table générale alphabétique et analytique des matières contenues au Mémorial du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg (1830–1870)” of the author Pierre Ruppert. The public can also discover the Rosenbüchlein published in 1912 by Charles Gemen, the most famous rose grower of Luxembourg, whose botanical works are among the most sought out today. The systematic digitisation of old monographs forms part of the objectives of the BnL as part of its project to digitalise the Luxembourg printed heritage.
Where can the digitalised publications be found?
The Luxembourg publications digitised by the BnL are accessible through the eluxemburgensia portal under the heading “livres numérisés” and via the search engine a-z.lu.
The eluxemburgensia.lu portal enables the user to access the full text of the resources digitised by the BnL (such as the Tageblatt, the Luxemburger Wort or d’Lëtzebuerger Land, magazines, old post cards, posters, books and manuscripts).
The digitalised content of the eluxemburgensia.lu portal is also accessible via the a-z.lu search engine which is designed for research on key data throughout the whole of the collections of the BnL and the 77 libraries of the bibnet.lu network.
Why does the BnL digitalise Luxembourg monographs and periodicals?
The National Library, in accordance with its statutory tasks as set out in the Law of 25 June 2004 on the reorganisation of the State cultural institutes (Arts 9, 10 and 11), collects and retains all Luxembourg publications and is responsible for ensuring access for as many people as possible to its collections, including by remote consultation using the most modern data-transmission technologies. Its programme for the mass digitisation of the national heritage falls precisely within this approach and the context of the objectives of the European Union to make the cultural and intellectual heritage of Europe available on line. By digitising and publishing Luxembourg monographs and periodicals on line, the BnL is responding to a growing demand from the general public and scientific research which are increasingly interested in the methods of the digital humanities. Mass digitisation makes the written national heritage more visible and more easily accessible, while at the same time guaranteeing the optimum conservation of originals that have been made fragile by their age and/or frequent utilisation.
