Knjigarna AZIL

Splošne informacije

UNIVERSUM SCIENTIAE – UNIVERSUM IMAGINUM

Convinced that the imagination is more important than knowledge (Albert Einstein), and that only those without fantasy resort to reality (Arno Schmidt), we at the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts boast not only of our history of more than twenty years of impressive research, but also of our clear vision for future development. With our good positioning within the Slovene and international research and educational areas, we continue to strive to improve our cooperation with institutions on all continents. We are therefore active in research the Middle East (Israel and Iran); and our connections reach to China, Oceania and Central America. Our greatest interest clearly lies within the triangle of Moscow, Paris and Athens, since the focus of much of our research moderates our cooperation with the universities of North America.

In addition to striving for the best results in the areas of the humanities, biology and palaeontology, we also strive to ensure the decentralisation of research work and the balanced development of all of the Slovene regions here at home. Our institutes and their remote stations can be found in Postojna, Nova Gorica and Tolmin; and we also have plans to open a research station in Prekmurje.

Since the end of 2003 we have been a proud cofounder of the Nova Gorica Polytechnics (now University of Nova Gorica), with which we carry out an undergraduate (Slovene Studies) and two postgraduate (Karstology and Comparative Studies of Ideas and Cultures) programmes.

Comparative Studies of Ideas and Cultures) programmes. Aware of our responsibility for the proper presentation of our research results, we founded our own publisher (ZRC Publishing/Založba ZRC) ten years ago, and a bookstore (Asylum/Azil) last year. In the beginning of the fall of 2004 the dinosaur laboratory (Dinolab) was opened, which highlights particularly well our continuous focus on the systematic presentation of our research results to all age groups, from kindergarten to university.

We have long understood that only intense and comprehensive development, supported by superior research results and exceptional educational programs can defend us from narrow provincialism and a self-serving bureaucracy. We are especially aware that we can only be fully liberated by the best of knowledge and the keenest of imagination; and so we have selected a call for the melding of both as our motto.