13 February 2025 – Edurne Kugeler

Introduction

This document defines which parts of the collection will be digitised and made available online between 2025 and 2027 by the various sections and departments of the MNAHA. The process will be coordinated by the Digitisation and Digital Collections Service, which will manage the necessary resources and regularly assess progress against the objectives set out in this document. If necessary, the department will adapt the objectives to the needs of the institution/sections and the resources available. Multi-year planning makes it possible to define and achieve ambitious objectives that require a longer planning period.

General

An analysis of MNAHA's public presence will take place in early 2025. This analysis will take into account the UX and accessibility of MNAHA Collections, as well as its integration into the institution's overall offering. The results will be taken into account, and the Digitisation Department will begin to implement any necessary modifications/improvements in the second half of 2025. The first half of 2025 will be dedicated to a focused effort to address various configuration issues, bugs, and data export.

Online publication of the collections

Over the last few years, the Archaeology Section has made great efforts to catalogue and document its museum collections. The first results of this work have already been published online.

Archeology

The Gallo-Roman lapidary collections have been catalogued and photographed in recent years for publication in the Nouvel Espérandieu (NESP). Their online publication is scheduled for the second half of 2025, in line with the physical publication of the catalogue. (Approximately 500 objects)

Work on lapidary collections outside the scope of the NESP will be resumed once the latter has been published, and will probably continue until the end of 2027. The objects will be made available online as they are inventoried and catalogued. Due to their size, additional effort will be required to create publishable photographs.

In addition, work to recollect the Gallo-Roman collections has begun in 2023. In-depth cataloguing of these objects is scheduled for 2025, so that they can be put online in 2026. (Approximately 1,500 objects)

Arts and Crafts (AC)

As planned, in 2024 the AC Section put the cabinet and large furniture collection online, as well as various thematic objects, with the support of the Inventory Department, the Photography Department and a CAE. The AC Section has also continued to put the earthenware collection online.

In the coming years, the AC Section will continue to put small and medium-sized thematic objects online. These objects must be digitisable by a single person and relate to his or her current research.

To complement the publication of wardrobes, in 2025 the AC Section will continue to put online objects belonging to furniture collections, in particular small pieces of furniture such as chairs that can be handled by a single person. 

In summer 2025, a project to digitise the large collection of firebacks (taques) is planned. This will not only enable their online publication, but also their repackaging within the storage facility. This repackaging will be necessary for reasons of space. The physical constraints - the width and weight of the objects - require the organisation of a dedicated worksite. This is scheduled for the last three months in autumn 2025. (Approximately 450 objects)

To complement the online availability of the furniture collections, it is planned that in 2026 the AC Section will begin a project to digitise the clock collection and put it online. In addition to the personnel required for any digitisation, this project depends on the allocation of specialised personnel for the assembly of the clocks.

Following a collection project carried out in 2018 by the Inventory Department, a multi-year project will begin in 2027 to study, digitise, and put our textile collection online. This project will require the allocation of a textile conservator in addition to the personnel at the storage facility and Photography Service staff to assist with dating as well as the handling required to photograph the objects.

Fine Arts (FA)

The campaign to digitise and put online works on paper created in the 20th and 21st centuries has added around 1,000 new objects to the MNAHA Collections platform in 2024. In 2025 and 2026, the FA Section will continue this project with the online publication of works on paper created in the 19th century.

A second digitisation project will focus on the Edward Steichen collections, which have been expanded through strategic acquisitions in recent years. In 2025, these new acquisitions will already join the collection online. This online presence will also provide an opportunity to publish a Collections “Story”, putting the various acquisitions into context.

To accompany the photographs in the Steichen collection, the FA Section will be putting the contemporary photography collection online in 2026.

Finally, in order to make the most of a study begun in recent years on the museum's collection of Old Masters, we plan to put all the works on canvas dating from before 1850 that belong to the museum's collection online, along with detailed studies of a selection of these works up to 2027.

Coins and Medals (CM)

Until now, the Coin cabinet's online efforts have focused on the different types of coins published by Raymond Weiller. The aim was to give an impression of the diversity of the museum's numismatic collections.

In 2025, the CM will concentrate its online efforts on the coins published in the “Moselgold” and “Amis / Ennemis” catalogues. After that, it will concentrate on digitising and putting online the coins on display in the permanent exhibition, a project that will probably last beyond 2027.

Fortress Documentationcentre (FDC)

Following the 3D digitisation and online publication of one of the bulwark rifles in our collection, the FDC plans to publish the other 5 bulwark rifles in the collection online in the first half of 2025, along with a story explaining how they work and their historical context.

The “3D Casemates” project will continue in 2025 with the publication of the 3D models produced to date, including those of the casemates of the Citadelle Saint Esprit and Fort Marie produced in 2024. They will be accompanied by annotations, texts, links to relevant objects and a glossary to make them more accessible and intelligible to different target audiences. The online publication of relevant objects is also planned for 2025.

In 2025, the Digitisation Department will continue to seek a stable form of publication for high-quality 3D scans. Due to the high level of detail of these scans, they contain a large amount of data. This makes it difficult to make them accessible to the public.

In 2026, as part of the “Bundeskontingent” exhibition, the weapons collection relating to this period will be put online.

In 2027, the Smith and Wesson weapons in the collection will be put online.

Objects related to the FDC's research topics will continually be put online. 

Lëtzebuerger Konschtarchiv (LKA)

As with the museum's institutional archives, the software developments made in 2024 to the archival tool used by the LKA will allow the inventories of the LKA's archives to be published on MNAHA Collections in late 2025/early 2026. These will then be continually updated by the LKA team.

The digitisation of the Herr Archive volumes by Autisme Luxembourg will come to an end in 2025. Their online publication depends on an agreement being reached with Luxorr, the collective rights management organisation in Luxembourg, which the Digitisation Department is in contact with.

Works entering the public domain

2026

2027

2028

MNAHA Archives

In 2024, the Digitisation Department commissioned the development of functionalities for the Goobi archive software necessary for the online publication of the archive inventories.. The audit of the MNAHA's public presence will take this project into account, and the results of the analysis will influence the publication of the inventories in late 2025/early 2026.

In 2026, the Archives Department is planning a project to bring together all the existing, but currently scattered, data on images belonging to the iconographic archives. These images constitute an enormously rich source for understanding our collection, and offer great potential for answering a wide range of questions. Online publication of this collection is also planned for 2026.

At the same time, in 2026, the Archives Department plans to continue the reconditioning, digitisation, and online publication of the glass plate negatives forming part of the iconographic archives, begun in 2021. This project has had to be postponed due to the unavailability of the photo restorer and the priorities of the Archives Department.

Exhibitions will continue to be published on MNAHA Collections in 2025-2027, with the help of interns and volunteers. The Archives Department plans to publish between 10 and 20 exhibitions online each year.

Library

In 2025, the Library Department will digitise the museum's publications published between 1980 and the present day. They will be put online in late 2025 and early 2026.

Publications that already exist in digital form (“born digital”) will be put online in early 2025.

Similar to the 2022 “Posters” project, the Library Department plans to catalogue, digitise and put online the museum's collection of postcards by 2026.

Annex 1

Overview of objectives by year and department for the digitisation and publication of the collections.