The Swedish Literature Bank is a non-profit organisation whose objective is making classic Swedish literature and
literary criticism
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
freely available in digital editions. It is a collaboration between the
Swedish Academy
The Swedish Academy ( sv, Svenska Akademien), founded in 1786 by King Gustav III of Sweden, Gustav III, is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, Royal Academies of Sweden. Its 18 members, who are elected for life, comprise the highest Swedish lang ...
, the
National Library of Sweden
The National Library of Sweden ( sv, Kungliga biblioteket, ''KB'', meaning "the Royal Library") is Sweden's national library. It collects and preserves all domestic printed and audio-visual materials in Swedish, as well as content with Swedish ...
, the
Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities
The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities also called simply the Royal Academy of Letters or Vitterhetsakademin abbreviated KVHAA ( sv, Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien Historie och Antikvitets Akademien or or ) is the Swedish royal ...
, the
Swedish Language Bank at the
University of Gothenburg
The University of Gothenburg ( sv, Göteborgs universitet) is a university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current Swedish universities and with 37,000 students and 6000 st ...
, the
Swedish Society for Belles-Lettres, and the
Society of Swedish Literature in Finland.
The Swedish Literature Bank publishes Swedish literary classics from the Middle Ages on, including "minor classics" and major historical and religious works,
["Ny litteraturbank på Internet"]
Vetenskap & miljö, Sveriges Radio
Sveriges Radio AB (, "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a licensing fee, the level of which is d ...
, 21 January 2004 in four digital formats: searchable e-text, facsimiles of the original edition, PDF files and EPUB files. The texts are based either on the first edition or on a subsequent scholarly edition. Authoritative presentations of authors and genres are also provided.
The initiative began after a suggestion by
Sven Lindqvist
Sven Oskar Lindqvist (28 March 1932 – 14 May 2019) was a prolific Swedish author whose 35 books range from essays, aphorisms, autobiography, and documentary prose to travel and reportage. He was educated at Stockholm University, and spent a ye ...
in the early 2000s.
[Anton Emanuelsson]
"Alla får lån direkt i Litteraturbanken"
''Dagens Nyheter
''Dagens Nyheter'' (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record.
History and profile
''Da ...
'', 7 May 2011 . The Swedish Academy held a seminar exploring the idea in 2002, and in 2004 a two-year pilot project began with funding from the
Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Because ...
. The project foundation was then organised in 2006. Starting at a time of rapid expansion of Swedish higher education institutions, the project was designed to address the problem of the many new Swedish colleges needing to set up libraries with expensive older literature, and to make older Swedish literature freely available anywhere in the world. In contrast to the older
Project Runeberg
Project Runeberg ( sv, Projekt Runeberg) is a digital cultural archive initiative that publishes free electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries. Patterned after Project Gutenberg, it was founded ...
, where anyone can help proofread the scans, the Literature Bank texts are proofread by scholars. They are chosen by an editorial committee, around certain themes such as works by female writers, older crime fiction and
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
, and from suggestions by the public.
[ The project has been described as "a Swedish mini-variant of Google Library"."Litteraturbanken.se – en svensk minivariant (?) på Google Library?"]
Bibblans blogg, Vadstena
Vadstena () is a locality and the seat of Vadstena Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden, with 5,613 inhabitants in 2010. From 1974 to 1979 Vadstena was administered as part of Motala Municipality.
Despite its small population, Vadstena is ...
Library, 11 May 2011
References
{{Reflist
External links
The Swedish Literature Bank official site, introduction in English
Swedish literature
Swedish digital libraries