Bulgarian Encyclopedia “A-Z”. Electronic edition. Book publishing house “Trud”, Software company “Sirma”. First edition 2002. Second expanded and updated edition 2004. Chief editor Acad. Evg. Golovinsky

In 2002, the Scientific Information Center “Bulgarian Encyclopedia” in cooperation with the Book Publishing House “Trud” and the Software Company “Sirma” published the first Bulgarian electronic encyclopedia. It comes out only a few months after the second edition of the Bulgarian Encyclopedia “A-Z” – the body of books, the information of which has been revised according to the possibilities of the electronic form. The encyclopedia was met with great interest by readers and became a universal helper for schoolchildren, students, specialists and lovers of limitless knowledge. In 2004, NC “Bulgarian Encyclopedia” prepared and published a second expanded and updated electronic edition. It contains over 32,000 articles covering all of human knowledge. In addition to being arranged alphabetically, the articles are also grouped into 700 categories and subcategories in the various fields of science. The Chronicle of Humanity, Atlas applications are new, the multimedia base of the edition has been significantly enriched.

The possibilities of the electronic form are maximally used:

• fast and efficient search in alphabetical order, by category, subcategory, keyword, phrase, word forms; searchability is facilitated by hyperlinks
• rich photographic and graphic illustrative material
• illustrating with music excerpts and video fragments
• tables and attractive multimedia applications Space, Nature, Human body, Civilization, Bulgaria, etc.
• a chronicle of humanity presented on a timeline
• virtual journey on a 3D earth globe and multiple maps
• the ability to add notes and tags to articles, to search for additional information on the Internet and view results directly in the encyclopedia window
• applications with practical value – “Statistics”, “Units of measurement”
• an interactive game with questions from all areas of science and life

The second edition of the electronic encyclopedia is richly illustrated with over 10,000 color illustrations. With 350 audio excerpts, composers and performers of classical, popular and folk music are presented, all national anthems are played. The encyclopedia contains many attractive applications.

The Chronicle of Humanity is extremely rich in content and presents the most significant events in the development of society, science, culture and Bulgaria, with the possibility of a direct link to the relevant articles in the encyclopedia.

The Atlas offers a virtual journey to each country. Countries are presented with their national anthem, an attractive relief map with major cities, statistics (geography, population, economy, communications, transport) and information about the state system, nature, economy, history, etc.

In Galleries there are over 60 multimedia applications from the fields of “Space”, “Nature”, “Human Body”, “Civilization”, “Bulgaria” and “Maps”.

Nature app includes numerous photographs and illustrations of plants, birds, crystals and animals. In it you can hear what sounds about 50 species of animals make.

The Human Body Part is a fun way to explore, read and learn more about your body and the functions of its organs.

Application “Bulgaria” contains rich information about our homeland.

The statistics allows up to 5 countries to be selected and compared according to 34 statistical indicators in the categories of geography, population, economy, transport, communications.

The game is a fun way to check your knowledge with information from the encyclopedia, and in case you don’t know the answer to a question, read information about it in the corresponding article. So you not only check your knowledge, but also learn new things.

One of the surprises for the reader is the rich video application with over 300 video fragments from Bulgarian and world cinema, geography, animal world, folklore, etc.

The new edition Bulgarian Encyclopedia “A-Z” contains two information CDs and a booklet with detailed instructions for installing and activating the product. An update to the second edition was made in May 2005. It is no longer available.