The NGE was launched in 2004. It was the first state encyclopedia to be conceived and designed exclusively for publication online. The idea for the project grew out of the 1996 joint publication of
The New Georgia Guide by the Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press. The guide, itself a spiritual successor to the
New Deal-era
American Guide Series, was a literary success. Georgia Humanities and UGA Press then convinced Governor
Zell Miller, who commissioned the guide in the first place, to fund the planning and development of a comprehensive print and online state encyclopedia. The name "New Georgia Encyclopedia" was chosen as an homage to the
New Georgia Guide and as a reference to the new online medium. As the project developed, plans for a print volume of the encyclopedia fell through. The planning committee argued that the increased receptiveness to change offered by the online medium would quickly obviate a printed volume. They also stressed that the proposed online-only encyclopedia would abide by the authoritative editorial standards of a print encyclopedia. ==GALILEO==