THE BNL IS CLOSED
In an effort to slow the spread of the Coronavirus, the National Library is closed for now.
This also means that the Luxembourg Web Archive cannot be accessed at the National Library.
However, there are lots of digital resources available online 24/7.
Check out the BnL Facebook Page for updates and suggestions!
Collection du Covid-19 :
La Bibliothèque nationale a besoin de vous tous pour compléter sa collection
La BnL est en train de rassembler une collection de toutes les informations pertinentes publiées sur la propagation et l’impact du Coronavirus au Luxembourg. Pour cette raison, dans le cadre de sa mission d’archivage du web luxembourgeois, la BnL aimerait demander votre support, afin de capturer tous les aspects de l’épidémie Covid-19 dans notre pays.
La liste des URLs de tous les articles moissonnés sera mise à disposition en ligne, de la même façon que nous présentons déjà d’autres collections ciblées sur webarchive.lu.
Dans la situation sans précédent à laquelle la pandémie Covid 19 nous confronte, de nouvelles initiatives de solidarité et le besoin d’information publique ont mené à la création de nouveaux sites web et plateformes en ligne, répondant aux besoins d’une société cherchant à s’adapter à cette crise. Afin de documenter ces développements pour les générations futures, nous vous demandons de nous communiquer les références des sites web informatifs, pages Facebook et Twitter traitant la thématique du Covid-19 dont vous avez connaissance.
This website serves as an information platform about the activities and collections of the Luxembourg Web Archive. Browsing the actual archive is only possible from within the National library of Luxembourg. To find out more, please check out our FAQs.
The National Library collects and preserves the Luxembourg web as part of our digital heritage
Always changing
A common misconception is that the contents of the Internet will stay available for eternity. In reality, 80 % of all websites will no longer be available in the same form, or have completely disappeared within a year. Moreover 10 % of all social media contents are lost every year, showing that the web is not only changing at a rapid pace, but is also short-lived.
A unique source of information
The web is a unique source of information.
With the growing emphasis on digitalization in all aspects of society, more and more information is solely published online, making its distribution and accessibility faster and easier. On the other hand, the lack of physical copies of publications accentuates the dangers of data loss. Relevant information, discussions and data that are not printed or preserved in any other shape or form could be lost, depriving future generations of the sources of knowledge available to us today.
The reflection of a diverse society
From its conception, the Internet has always been centered around a culture of exchange, communication and an open, participatory approach to making information available to everyone. The convenience of using and contributing content on the web, as well as more recent developments such as social media, are adding to the concept of the Internet as an all-encompassing universe, reflecting all facets of society and cultures in the world. All the more reason to preserve a piece of this universe, by archiving the Luxembourg web – not only to ensure the availability of websites, but also to provide a means of analyzing the importance and influence of society on the Internet and vice versa.
Our mission
The National Library of Luxembourg is open to all, presenting its patrimonial collections on a national and international level. Empowering scientific research and facilitating the access to information, the National Library is a pillar of the knowledge society. As a patrimonial library, the BnL collects, preserves and catalogues all publications issued in Luxembourg, as well as foreign publications in relation with the Grand-Duchy. The National Library aims to drive innovation in new technologies and library management as an academic and scientific library. This assignment not only covers printed media, but also digital publications of all kind, including the Luxembourg web.
As a component of the digital legal deposit, harvesting the web ensures the long term access to the contents of the Internet which are publicly available. Overall, the LWA operates in an inclusive, rather than exclusive collection policy, in the sense that the legal deposit applies to Luxembourg publishers, which the BnL interprets as:
– All sites from the “.lu” top level domain (TLD)
– Sites published in Luxembourg (by citizens and residents)
In some instances, the LWA also harvests websites published abroad, created by Luxembourgers or in relation with the Grand-Duchy, in the interest of preserving the national digital heritage.
As it is the case for all national web archives, this mandate does not translate to an obligation of completeness, due to the extent and feasibility of these tasks. The legal deposit for paper obliges publishers to hand in their publications to the National Library. In the case of websites, the obligation for publishers is fulfilled if the BnL is able to access and harvest their websites.
Article 9 et Article 10 de la Loi modifiée du 25 juin 2004
portant réorganisation des instituts culturels de l’Etat
Règlement grand-ducal du 6 novembre 2009 relatif au dépôt légal, modifié par le règlement grand-ducal du 21 décembre 2017
International cooperations
IIPC – International Internet Preservation Consortium
IIPC members are organizations from over 45 countries, including national, university and regional libraries and archives. The mission of the IIPC is to acquire, preserve and make accessible knowledge and information from the Internet for future generations everywhere, promoting global exchange and international relations.
To achieve its mission, the IIPC is working to accomplish the following goals: To enable the collection of a rich body of Internet content from around the world to be preserved in a way that it can be archived, secured and accessed over time. To foster the development and use of common tools, techniques and standards that enable the creation of international archives. To encourage and support national libraries, archives and research organisations everywhere to address Internet archiving and preservation.
The BnL is a member of the IIPC since 2017.
DPC – Digital Preservation Coalition
The DPC enables its members to deliver resilient long-term access to digital content and services, helping them to derive enduring value from digital assets and raising awareness of the strategic, cultural and technological challenges they face. These aims are achieved through advocacy, community engagement, workforce development, capacity-building, good practice and good governance.
DPC members share the belief that thoughtful preservation creates the conditions in which optimal value can be delivered from digital collections. Therefore digital preservation is a necessary and achievable social and organisational good.
The BnL is a member of the DPC since 2018.
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive, is a non-profit organisation, offering free access to “a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form”. It’s main ambition is nothing less than “to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge”. The Internet Archive has been a partner and service provider to the Luxembourg Web Archive in the large scale domain crawls, as well as in event-based collections.
The BnL has been working with the Internet Archive since 2016.
Web Archiving Week 2021
In June 2021, The BnL is joining forces with the University of Luxembourg, to combine the 2021 editions of the IIPC Web Archiving Conference and the RESAW Conference into one week of web archiving. We are looking forward to welcoming web archivists from libraries, archives, universities, heritage and research institutions to Luxembourg. Stay tuned, because news are coming in soon!
RESAW.euWAC 2020
Contact
Address:
37D, avenue John F. Kennedy. L-1855 Luxembourg
Phone:
(+352) 26 559 351
Email:
Participate and contribute
Saving websites from being lost is not only a service to the general public but a service to site owners in the first place. If you have a website or create a new one, let us know about it. If you see a website you think should be saved for the future, tell us aboutit. Suggestions, questions comments on special collections, topics, data, or any other subject, we are all ears!