Dear Mr. Deputy President of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences,
dear guests, dear colleagues,
Celebrating round anniversaries of individuals, events and institutions is one of the essential ingredients of the spiritual image of any society. Celebrating anniversaries as an internal need of individuals and groups of people is a moment of the traditions that support the self-esteem of a community, and fuel readiness, need and desire for new creative works. This is because the anniversary is not only a moment of taking stock of a particular path traveled, but also an occasion to mark plans for the future and to make an attempt to implement some more realistic intentions.
For 50 years now, in the oldest and most authoritative scientific institution in Bulgaria – the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, one of the most important tasks shaping the spiritual image of society has been carried out. It is about the development and creation of national reference and encyclopedic publications. I would say that this is not simply a task of specific and routine scientific and literary elaboration. It is a mission, the fulfillment of which connects the spiritual past, present and future of a nation in continuous succession. This mission is enlightening, educational and scientific. In the volumes of a common encyclopedia, culture and science, education and religion, art and literature, technology and sports, national defense and tourism are interwoven into a harmonious whole. All these aspects of life inevitably acquire a national color in an encyclopedic edition created in a given country. This is understandable, I would say, it is also necessary. That is why in the pages of our Bulgarian general encyclopedias, which are used every day by the student and the teacher, the engineer, the doctor or the scientist, in those volumes that are needed by the whole nation, they can easily find not only the specific information they are interested in, but also information, which becomes a source of national self-confidence.
Naturally, any encyclopedia must be devoid of bias. The encyclopedia does not give a way of thinking, it gives knowledge, information and information sought by the reader, presented in an objective and unbiased way. However, the approach in the presentation of information and information should be such that the encyclopedia fulfills its educational mission in all layers of our society.
Today, the aspiration of the staff of the Scientific Information Center “Bulgarian Encyclopedia” at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is to meet these requirements and these criteria in the most convincing way.
