Thailand Knowledge Park (TK park) in conjunction with the Chachoengsao Municipality celebrated a soft opening of the Knowledge Center of Chachoengsao (KCC) on July 7. This opening day also saw the launch of two children’s book "Outing to Chachoengsao with Granny” and "Charming Cha-choeing- sao” – representing TK park’s Local Knowledge Book Series’ new additions – and the opening of a fun exhibition to promote a better understanding of, and pride in, local culture among the youth of Chachoengsao.
Dr. Tatsanai Wongpisethkul, Vice President of the Office of Knowledge Management and Development (OKMD) and Director-General of Thailand Knowledge Park (TK Park), said that KCC – the result of cooperation between TK park and the Chachoengsao Municipality – is TK park’s 12th provincial knowledge park based on its “living library” concept to disseminate knowledge and increase its accessibility to children, youngsters and the general public in the regional areas of Thailand.
KCC is an upshot of TK park’s network extension strategy to create a model for development of provincial knowledge park that are not only visually attractive, but attune to the social and technological changes as well. Designed by a team of architects from Silpakorn University’s Faculty of Architecture, KCC is set in a beautiful building that looks like four books stacked up on each other. The building has been designed based on focus group research to serve the real needs of local users of all age groups. Its space utilization corresponds to the needs of local users with numerous functions such as Kids Room, Dream Square, Living Library, KCC Theatre, IT Station and Sound Studio.
Dr. Tatsanai said in terms of cooperation with municipalities, TK park has been playing a major role in transferring ideas and know-how about the management of living libraries and educational activities to knowledge parks nationwide. The organization also provides those network libraries with support of its various children contents such as educational games, e- books and local knowledge book series.
On the occasion of the soft launch, TK park has created a local knowledge-oriented exhibition “Charming Chachoengsao” with the goal of disseminating branches of knowledge and promoting a better understanding and awareness of the local way of life and culture.
"Local Knowledge Book Series have been produced in the form of two bilingual children’s books (in Thai and English): "Outing to Chachoengsao with Granny” written and illustrated by Assoc Prof Krirk Yoonphan and "Charming Chachoengsao" written and illustrated by Kanchala Navanugrah. Both have unique irrelevant contents that reflect the local way of life and wisdom of the people of Chachoengsao,” said Dr. Tatsanai.
Dr Tatsanai said TK park has been playing a prominent role in learning and reading promotion among Thai children and youth in Thailand over the past nine years. Apart from managing the living library at TK park on the 8th floor of Central World, TK park is working in close collaboration with partner provincial and municipal bodies to create more tangible results of developing Thailand into a truly learning society.
