Education Perspective Professor Igor Papič, Rector of the University of Ljubljana, Professor Zlatko Šabič, Director-General of the EARL, Mirjam Kotar, Chief Coordinator of the EARL and Head of the Central Social Sciences Library, and Professor Anuška Ferligoj, Ambassador of Science of the Republic of Slovenia address the attendees of the EARL Inauguration Day. Photo: Urban Resnik
East Asian Resource Library for knowledge without borders By Silvija Fister
The East Asian Resource Library (EARL) officially opened its doors on 10 May, with an inauguration ceremony held in its main reading room at the Faculty of Social Sciences. Serving as a central repository for printed and digital collections of books, data, journals, primary documents and articles, EARL’s main ambition is to facilitate and strengthen understanding and connections with the East-Asian region among scholars, students and interested parties alike. The idea of EARL stems from a collaboration between two faculties of the University of Ljubljana: the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Arts, specifically the Department of Asian Studies. The project had been in the works for at least two years, since the signing of an agreement by the two collaborators. As professed in the video introduction at the event, the library has already proven to be a valuable asset for students of humanities and social sciences. In addition to providing access to resources, it serves as an information point, hosts open lectures, roundtables and panels on the subjects of relevance and interest to the East-Asian and European academic and general public. The library’s main objectives are to build interdisciplinary, intercultural and international knowledge through the EARL Research Unit by publishing papers and to further facilitate and sustain a worldwide academic network
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of collaborating institutions. Currently, EARL consists of four "corners" that represent its main partners, contributors and supporters: the China Corner Reading Beijing, the Taiwan Resource Centre for Chinese Studies, the Korea Corner and the Japan Corner.
EARL consists of four "corners" that represent its main partners, contributors and supporters: the China Corner Reading Beijing, the Taiwan Resource Centre for Chinese Studies, the Korea Corner and the Japan Corner.
In his welcome address, Professor Zlatko Šabič, Director-General of EARL, expressed his hope that the vision of EARL will have local, regional and worldwide reach, and make a positive contribution to the solving of common global problems. EARL is to be a confirmation of the assertion "knowledge knows no borders". This vision was also echoed in the inauguration speech of Professor Anuška Ferligoj, Slovenia’s Ambassador of Science, who shared experiences from her successful international academic career. According to her, science is a global activity and EARL is about science, knowledge, research, teaching and networking. Its potential and capacity are such that it can become an important regional hub for studying social sciences and humanities. What’s more, successful research development requires a diversity of ideas: Using a range of diverse ideas is likely to lead to the development of unexpected and very successful results. According to my experience, researchers from East Asia have very different research approaches than European, and collaboration between them can develop into very interesting and new research outcomes. EARL offers an ideal setting for such collaborations.
Science is a global activity. Only when public and private shake hands and work together can we see science thriving, including, above all, social science. As a scientist, I feel humbled to see the support for EARL coming from all corners of East Asia. What is even more important, I can see from the list of the participants at this opening that you come from both the public and private sectors. Only when public and private shake hands and work together can we see science thriving, including, above all, social science. The guests at the opening included representatives of EARL’s partners, ambassadors, senior public officials, members of the business community, students and the media. The entire event was in line with the spirit of cultural exchange, complete with music from the four East Asian corners, performed by Florence Gacoin-Marks and accompanied with dancing by Ryuzo Fukuhara.