The main topics of this work are orphan works and their digitization. The prominence is given to digitization in general and the digitization of orphan works because they make up a large percentage of public institutions’ collections. The avoidance of digitizing these works creates a void in the access to knowledge. The concept of an orphan work, which is a work whose copyright owner is not known, is explained in more detail. Consequently, this work discusses the intellectual property and provides definitions of terms associated with it, such as the author, the work of authorship and copyright. The legal regulations related to orphan works are also explained. Those legislations were made in order to legally determine and limit the use of orphan works. The laws referred to are those adopted in the EU and in the Republic of Croatia. Directive on certain permitted uses of orphan works is an EU law which the Republic of Croatia harmonized with its Copyright and Related Rights Act. Furthermore, some projects are also presented whose purposes are related to orphan works. The objectives of these projects are, essentially, gathering information about the authors and copyright holders. Through this work are, therefore, presented the most important achievements in the European Union and its Member States in the field of orphan works. A search of a database was also conducted on one of the projects in order to determine its operability.