Nationalencyklopedin

Nationalencyklopedin (Swedish: [natɧʊˈnɑːlɛnsʏklʊpəˈdiːn]), abbreviated NE, is a comprehensive contemporary Swedish language encyclopedia, initiated by a favourable loan from the Government of Sweden of 17 million Swedish kronor in 1980, which was repaid by December 1990. The printed version consists of 20 volumes with 172,000 articles; the Internet version comprises 260,000 articles (as of June 2005).

History

The project was born in 1980, when a government committee suggested that negotiations be initiated with various publishers. This stage was finished in August 1985, when Bra Böcker in Höganäs became the publisher responsible for the project. The project specifications were for a modern reference work based on a scientific paradigm incorporating gender and environmental issues.

Pre-orders for the work were unprecedented; before the first volume was published in December 1989, 54,000 customers had ordered the encyclopedia. The last volume came out in 1996, with three supplemental volumes in 2000.