Guide

Published October 16, 2026

BnL Library Card: Free E-books and Audiobooks in Luxembourg

A free membership at the Bibliothèque nationale du Luxembourg (BnL), Luxembourg's national library, lets eligible readers borrow e-books and audiobooks through ebooks.lu. For English-language reading and listening, start with Libby. The shared service also has German and French collections, but they are not all on the same platform. The BnL's digital-book guide explains the choices.

Before applying for a card, check whether your residence qualifies for digital access—and whether a local library membership you already hold gives you access to ebooks.lu.

Check your eligibility—and whether you already have access

You do not need Luxembourg citizenship to join the BnL. Anyone aged 14 or over can register, regardless of nationality or residence. Borrowing books and accessing digital resources, however, are reserved for people living in Luxembourg or neighboring regions. These are separate conditions in the BnL's membership guidance.

For a cross-border reader, the relevant condition is where you live, not simply whether you work in Luxembourg. The guidance uses the phrase “neighbouring regions” without providing a complete geographical list. If your address is farther from the border or its eligibility is unclear, ask the BnL's membership team using the contact details on Guichet before relying on remote access.

Already have a local library card? Check the ebooks.lu participating-library list. BnL is one route into the service, not the only one. An eligible membership at a participating library may let you move straight to choosing a reading platform; check that library's access conditions first.

A visit is different from borrowing: you can use the BnL reading room and consult its open-shelf collections without registering.

Choose the registration route that fits your situation

With LuxTrust, an electronic identity card or an eIDAS product: start at the BnL registration page and follow its link to the authenticated MyGuichet application.

As an eligible pupil or student without electronic authentication: use the separate student application. You must be at least 14, attend a Luxembourg secondary or higher-education institution approved by the State, and live in Luxembourg or neighboring regions. Attach copies of your identity document and valid student card. This route is not a general alternative for every applicant who lacks LuxTrust.

If neither online route fits: register at the BnL reception desk with a valid identity document and a signed registration form. Guichet's application instructions describe receiving a library card with a reader number and an email for setting your account password.

Keep your reader number and library password available for the reading platforms. MyGuichet handles the application; its sign-in is not the library login to enter in Libby.

Membership lasts two years. Joining and renewing are free, and you can renew online or at reception, according to Guichet's renewal guidance.

Choose a platform by language and format

For ebooks.lu's leisure-reading collection, the official platform guide gives you these starting points:

The German split is easy to miss: reading a German novel and listening to a German audiobook means using Onleihe and Libby, respectively—not applying for two BnL memberships.

For French audiobooks, use Numilog in a browser. Its Louise Reader app supports e-books but does not play audiobooks, according to the ebooks.lu help page.

This table covers the shared leisure-reading service. The BnL also offers academic and specialist digital collections, which should not be confused with the titles available through these three platforms.

Make your first loan before setting up an e-reader

For an English-language e-book or audiobook, follow the official Libby setup instructions:

1. Open Libby in a browser or its app on a device you already own, using the links in the ebooks.lu platform guide.
2. Search for Luxembourg and select National Library of Luxembourg, even if your card comes from another participating library.
3. Sign in with your library reader number and password.
4. Find a title in the language and format you want. Check its availability and the loan terms shown before completing the checkout.

For German e-books or French titles, choose Onleihe or Numilog instead through the same platform guide and follow that service's library sign-in instructions.

Standard loans last 14 days, with up to eight items per platform at a time. E-books and audiobooks count together toward that platform's limit. Loans return automatically when the lending period ends, and some platforms offer shorter periods at checkout. Check the current lending guidance and the terms displayed for your loan.

Start by reading or listening in a browser or app. This helps separate an account problem from an e-reader setup problem: first establish that you can borrow, then work out how to use a separate device.

ebooks.lu does not support Kindle e-readers. For other e-readers, the setup depends on the model and platform. Check the service's device instructions before buying hardware or attempting to transfer a loan. A valid library card does not make every device compatible.

If access fails, check the account before applying again

Your account is refused. For the message “Vous n’avez pas accès à ce proxy,” ebooks.lu identifies three possible causes: expired membership, no membership at a participating library, or a reader younger than 14. Check these causes in the official troubleshooting guidance before submitting a duplicate application.

You can sign in, but cannot find a book. Check the language-and-format table before concluding that the service lacks the title. You can also search across the collection through a-z.lu, which is linked from the ebooks.lu collection overview, rather than checking only one platform. Finding a title and finding an available loan are separate checks.

If the problem remains, contact your library or ebooks.lu support. Explain which platform you used, whether the failure happened at sign-in, checkout or opening the loan, and whether your membership is current. Include the exact error wording and your device model when relevant, but never send your password.