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Den Store Danske Encyklopædi (The Great Danish Encyclopedia) is the most comprehensive contemporary Danish language encyclopedia. The 20 volumes of the encyclopedia were published successively between 1994 and 2001; a one-volume supplement was published in 2002 and two index volumes in 2003. The work comprises 115,000 articles, ranging in size from single-line cross references to the 130-page entry on Denmark. The articles were written by a staff of about 4,000 academic experts led by editor-in-chief Jørn Lund. Articles longer than a few dozen lines are signed by their authors. Many articles are illustrated.

The encyclopedia was published by Danmarks Nationalleksikon A/S (Denmark's National Encyclopedia), a subsidiary of Denmark's publishing house Gyldendal that was set up for the purpose. The project was inspired by the almost contemporary Swedish Nationalencyklopedin; it received financial support from the Augustinus Foundation and was backed by a governmental inflation guarantee on pre-paid subscriptions. Eventually about 35,000 copies were sold.

CD version

The text of the paper encyclopedia was also published, but without illustrations, on CD-ROMs for Microsoft Windows in 2004 and for macOS in 2005. In January 2006, it was announced that a full online edition of the encyclopedia was expected to be available in later 2006 on a subscription basis, with the help of a renewed grant from the Augustinus Foundation. In March 2008, the publishing house announced that it failed to get sufficient numbers of subscribers and declared the project a failure.

The CD-ROM version of the encyclopedia is likely not to work without an update on newer versions of Windows XP/Vista, due to a security fix from Microsoft.^[1]^[2]

Online version

An online version of the encyclopedia was released on 26 February 2009 free-of-charge, generating revenue by displaying ads. The free online version was published using wiki software, opening up for user contributions.^[3] The decision to offer it free of charge was criticized by buyers of the DKK 25,000^[4] (approx US$4,500 (2010)) paper encyclopedia, to whom the publishing house originally had pledged that a reduced-price paper version would never be released. The publishing house insists that all pledges are honored, as the free-of-charge version is web-based, and not a paper encyclopedia.^[5]

Gyldendal's vision is to create a hybrid between the traditional encyclopedia and user-generated encyclopedias like Wikipedia. While registered users may contribute with content and upload images, etc., a professional editorial staff maintain oversight over contributions.^[4]^[5] The status of an article is clearly flagged, if it is user-generated content or if it has been approved by the editorial staff.^[6] The vision is that the online version will be the Dane's preferred choice for updated and trustworthy information, maintaining the status of a traditional encyclopedia.^[6] Gyldendal sought to recruit about 1,500 subject matter experts to verify user contributions to the about 161,000 articles - by March 2009 about 1,100 experts had been enrolled.^[4] The permanent editorial staff comprises 20 persons.^[7]

Copyright

The original articles from Den Store Danske Encyclopædi can be used freely but cannot be distributed or used commercially.^[8]

The new articles (made by the users) can be used freely provided the source is referenced using a deep link.^[9]

Den Store Danske is covered by the Danish copyright law and it belongs to Gyldendal.^[10]

References

^ "Programmet vil ikke starte" [The program will not start.]. support.gyldendal.dk (in Danish). Archived from the original on 11 June 2007. Retrieved 16 May 2008.
^ "Gyldendal admits encyclopaedia struggle". theBookseller.com. Archived from the original on 8 March 2008. Retrieved 5 March 2008.
^ "Leksikon - Gyldendals åbne encyklopædi | Gyldendal - Den Store Danske" [Lexicon - Gyldendal's open encyclopedia | Gyldendal - The Great Dane]. denstoredanske.dk (in Danish). Archived from the original on 8 August 2019. All pages on Den Store Danske refer to wiki software.
^ ^a ^b ^c Encyklopædi på internettet med problemer Magisterbladet, 13 March 2009, 1. sektion, Side 24
^ ^a ^b Oplysningstid 2.0. Information, 20 November 2008, Bøger, Side 24/25
^ ^a ^b Kronik: www.denstoredanske.dk by Cliff Hansen, forlagschef, Gyldendal Digital og LARS BOESGAARD, direktør, Gyldendal Fakta. Berlingske Tidende, 19 November 2008, Kultur & Debat, Side 13
^ "Den Store Danske: Er det slut for den danske Wikipedia?" [The Great Dane: Is it the end of the Danish Wikipedia?]. Nettendenser.dk (in Danish). Archived from the original on 2 April 2015.
^ "Den Store Danske Encyclopædi: Copyright oprindeligeartikler" [The Great Danish Encyclopedia: Copyright original articles]. denstoredanske.dk (in Danish). Archived from the original on 26 October 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2009.
^ "Den Store Danske Encyclopædi: Copyright nye artikler" [The Great Danish Encyclopedia: Copyright new articles]. denstoredanske.dk (in Danish). Archived from the original on 25 September 2010. Retrieved 28 February 2009.
^ "Den Store Danske Encyclopædi: Vilkår og rettigheder" [The Great Danish Encyclopedia: Terms and rights]. denstoredanske.dk (in Danish). Archived from the original on 1 March 2009. Retrieved 28 February 2009.