diff --git a/app/index.html b/app/index.html
index 95f79649..b5c66400 100644
--- a/app/index.html
+++ b/app/index.html
@@ -127,6 +127,12 @@
             <input type="text" name="separator" value="," class="spam1"/>
           </div>
         </div>
+        <div class="control-group">
+          <label class="control-label">Encoding</label>
+          <div class="controls">
+            <input type="text" name="encoding" value="UTF-8" />
+          </div>
+        </div>
         <div class="form-actions">
           <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Import &raquo;</button>
         </div>
diff --git a/app/js/app.js b/app/js/app.js
index c60c0266..a7f63c72 100755
--- a/app/js/app.js
+++ b/app/js/app.js
@@ -128,7 +128,8 @@ function setupLoader(callback) {
     var $file = $form.find('input[type="file"]')[0];
     var file = $file.files[0];
     var options = {
-        separator : $form.find('input[name="separator"]').val()
+        separator : $form.find('input[name="separator"]').val(),
+        encoding : $form.find('input[name="encoding"]').val()
     };
     recline.Backend.loadFromCSVFile(file, function(dataset) {
       callback(dataset)
diff --git a/src/backend/localcsv.js b/src/backend/localcsv.js
index 96126fe3..e5a6bdec 100644
--- a/src/backend/localcsv.js
+++ b/src/backend/localcsv.js
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ this.recline.Backend = this.recline.Backend || {};
 
 (function($, my) {
   my.loadFromCSVFile = function(file, callback, options) {
+    var encoding = options.encoding || 'UTF-8';
+    
     var metadata = {
       id: file.name,
       file: file
@@ -16,7 +18,7 @@ this.recline.Backend = this.recline.Backend || {};
     reader.onerror = function (e) {
       alert('Failed to load file. Code: ' + e.target.error.code);
     };
-    reader.readAsText(file);
+    reader.readAsText(file, encoding);
   };
 
   my.csvToDataset = function(csvString, options) {