International encyclopedia conference
2024
Oslo, Norway, May 15th and 16th, 2024
Meet other encyclopedists & experience Norway’s legendary National Day celebrations.
The European Encyclopedia Network and The Great Norwegian Encyclopedia (SNL) invites all national encyclopedias of the world to a conference in Oslo, Norway, in May.
It will also be possible to watch a live stream of the speeches.
Where to stay, and how to get there
Dates: It’s good to arrive some time on Tuesday May 14th. The conference finishes on Thursday May 16th, but there will be an informal programme with lunch and dinner on Norway’s National day May 17th.
Travel: The main airport is Oslo Gardermoen (OSL), it takes 19 minutes to the city by train. There’s also a small airport at Sandefjord (TRF), which is 1–2 hours away by train.
Stay: There are many options. We recommend Bondeheimen (regular hotel, 3 minutes from SNL’s office, around €160), Comfort Hotel Xpress (bit cheaper, 5 minutes from SNL's office), Citybox (cheaper option, clean and good, breakfast is extra; 7 minutes from SNL's office, around €100) or Cochs Pensjonat (quirky old place, 12 minutes from SNL’s office, around €140).
Food and drinks: The SNL will organise and pay for most meals. We encourage that the wealthier organisations chip in on these costs.
Do: If you decide to stay a bit longer than the conference, we really recommend seeing the new National Museum (art, design and architecture), the new Munch Museum (art, see the 😱) or Norsk Folkemuseum (cultural history, lots of old buildings).
The Norway in a Nutshell tour gives you a view of cities, mountains and fjords.
Attendees
 | Scientific Information Center “Bulgarian Encyclopedia” | 2 |
|---|---|---|
 | Lex.dk The Danish Encyclopedia | 4 |
 | European Parliament | 1 |
 | Georgian Encyclopedia | 1 |
 | The Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography | 2 |
 | Treccani | 2 |
 | Latvian National Encyclopedia | 1 |
 | Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts | 2 |
 | Great Norwegian Encyclopedia | 5 |
 | Swedish National Encyclopedia | 3 |
 | Encyclopaedia Beliana | 2 |
 | Ukrainian State Research Institution “Encyclopedia Press” | 4 |
Registration
Deadline: April 1st 2024
Programme
The conference will be held at the SNL’s office. This way you’ll get a feel of the editorial team and the daily routines. We’ll serve a Norwegian lunch (which is quite simple), and have dinner together each night.
Tuesday May 14
18:00–21:00 Meet and greet: Drinks and pizza at the SNL office
Wednesday May 15
10:00 Welcome. Short presentation of all attendants
10:45 Key note: Encyclopaedias as vehicles for knowledge diplomacy in an era of information disorder. Naja Bentzen, policy analyst at the European Parliament
11:30 Ukraine: Creating an encyclopedia in the midst of a war.
12:00 Italy: The Treccani encyclopedia.
12:15 Lunch
13:00 Short round of status for each encyclopedia
14:00 Progress of the complaint case to the EU competition authority
14:15 Break
14:30 Search engines and encyclopedias
16:00 Cooperating with Wikimedia, using Wikidata
19:00–22:00 Conference dinner at Ekebergrestauranten
Thursday May 16
10:00 The effect of AI and language models on encyclopedias. Discussions.
11:30 Language models and copyright
12:00 Encyclopedias for children. The new Norwegian and Swedish Children's encyclopedia and other encyclopedias experiences.
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Encyclopedias as channels for scientific publishing, the European system for academic publishing points
15:00 Annual meeting of the European Encyclopedia Network
15:30 Discussion: Potential projects for cooperation
18:00–20:00 Informal dinner at Vippa, Akershusstranda 25
Friday May 17
08:00–12:00 Walk around and watch the celebrations
12:00–14:00 Lunch at Erik’s flat
14:00–15:00 Concert in the Birkelunden park
18:15–21:00 Dinner at Skansen (pay for yourself)
Venues
SNL’s office
Grensen 3
Wednesday dinner
Ekebergrestauranten
Kongsveien 15
Thursday dinner
Vippa
Akershusstranda 25
Contact us
The meeting is organised by Kjersti Kanestrøm Lie, Mina Hennum Mohseni and Erik Bolstad at the Great Norwegian Encyclopedia.
Contact Kjersti: +47 404 94 211, kjersti at snl dot no
Contact Mina: +47 934 37 348, mina at snl dot no
Contact Erik: +47 911 31 091, erik at snl dot no
Previous conferences
European & International Encyclopedia Conference 2022
The Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography organised the 2022 conference in Zagreb in October.
See the programme, booklet and images
European Encyclopedia Meetup 2020
The Great Norwegian Encyclopedia (SNL) invited all encyclopedias of the world to an informal video meetup on December 1st 2020. 65 people from 14 organisations in 12 countries attended the meetup.
European Encyclopedia Conference 2019
The first European Encyclopedia Conference was held in Brussels. The Great Norwegian Encyclopedia (SNL), in cooperation with the European Parliamentary Research Service and The Mission of Norway to the European Union, organised the event, which we believe was the largest meetup of encyclopedias from Europe and North America ever.
The European encyclopedias have a long and rich history. This is how Denis Diderot – the principal editor of the Encyclopédie – described an encyclopedia’s mission in 1755. It is still valid – 269 years later.
Indeed, the purpose of an encyclopedia is to collect knowledge disseminated around the globe; to set forth its general system to the men with whom we live, and transmit it to those who will come after us, so that the work of preceding centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come; and so that our offspring, becoming better instructed, will at the same time become more virtuous and happy, and that we should not die without having rendered a service to the human race in the future years to come.
Denis Diderot in Encyclopédie (1755), translated by Philip Stewart